THE  MIND  OF  THE  BUYER 
A  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  SELLING 


THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 

MBW  YORK  •    BOSTON   •  CHICAGO  •   DALLAS 
ATLANTA   •  SAN  FRANCISCO 

MACMILLAN  &  CO.,  LIMITED 

LONDON  •   BOMBAY  •   CALCUTTA 

MELBOURNE 

THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 
OP  CANADA,  LIMITED 

TORONTO 


THE  MIND  OF  THE  BUYEB 

A  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  SELLING 


BY 
HARRY  DEXTER  KITSON,    PH.D. 

PROFSSSOB    OF    PSYCHOLOGY,    BtDUJU    UNIVERSITY 


Porfe 

THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 

1929 

AU  rights  reserved 


PRINTED  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES  OF  AMERICA 


COPYRIGHT,  1921 
BY  THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 


Set  up  and  electrotyped.    Published  September,  1921 


FERRIS  PRINTING  COMPANY 
NEW  YORK 


PEEFACE 

This  book  is  written  for  the  progressive 
salesman,  advertiser,  sales  correspondent — 
for  every  one  who  is  engaged  in  influencing 
men  to  buy.  It  does  not  deal  with  the  tech- 
nique of  selling;  each  form  of  selling  has  its 
own  technique  which  must  be  separately  ac- 
quired. Bather  it  deals  with  principles.  It 
recognizes  that  certain  elements  are  common 
to  all  forms  of  selling.  These  elements  are 
certain  occurrences  within  the  mind  of  the 
buyer.  Whether  directed  by  word  of  mouth, 
by  pen  or  by  picture,  the  mind  must  perforce 
pass  through  certain  stages  en  route  to  the  act 
of  purchase.  It  is  to  describe  these  mental 
processes  that  the  book  is  written. 

Such  a  work  must  necessarily  deal  with 
profound  psychological  questions.  Such  men- 
tal processes  as  attention,  interest,  desire, 
and  confidence  require  voluminous  treatment 
in  the  literature  of  theoretical  psychology. 
The  author  has  endeavored  in  this  presenta- 
tion, however,  to  rob  them  of  their  forbidding 

v 


753475 


vi  PREFACE 

dryness  by  stripping  away  technical  terms 
and  substituting  words  of  current  business 
usage. 

Two  outstanding  ideals  have  governed  the 
preparation  of  the  work:  (1)  To  show  the 
reader  how  to  take  the  psychological  point  of 
view  toward  the  business  of  selling;  (2)  to 
teach  that  in  investigating  the  sale  psycho- 
logically we  must  employ  the  methods  of 
scientific  measurement.  By  repetition  and  ex- 
ample the  author  has  emphasized  these  two 
ideals.  If  he  shall  have  made  them  clear  he 
will  have  accomplished  his  chief  aim  whether 
he  teaches  a  great  amount  of  psychological 
fact  or  not. 

The  psychologist-reader  will  discern  a 
studied  avoidance  of  the  spiritistic  conception 
of  mind.  The  mind  is  here  conceived  as  an 
organic  unity.  Though  exposition  of  this 
point  of  view  is  withheld,  as  unseemly  in  a 
book  of  this  kind,  still  the  phraseology  will 
be  found  to  fit  it,  without  at  the  same  time 
affrighting  the  non-psychological  reader  un- 
familiar with  the  controversies  about  the 
mind-body  relation.  This  avoidance  of  meta- 
physical disputations  is  further  helped  by  the 
consistent  emphasis  upon  the  buyer's  be- 
havior. Objective  descriptions  are  largely 


PREFACE  vli 

used.  And  since  our  objective  psychological 
nomenclature  is  not  cluttered  with  spiritistic 
connotations,  the  aim  of  being  scientific  and 
at  the  same  time  understandable  is  more  easily 
achieved. 

Grateful  acknowledgments  are  due  to  J.  B. 
Lippincott  Company  for  permission  to  use 
certain  passages  and  cuts  from  the  author's 
"Manual  for  the  Study  of  the  Psychology  of 
Advertising  and  Selling,"  with  which  this 
may  be  used  as  a  text;  to  the  editor  of  The 
Scientific  Monthly  for  permission  to  reprint 
portions  of  Chapter  XIII;  to  the  editor  of 
Western  Advertising  for  permission  to  re- 
print portions  of  Chapter  V;  to  Professor 
W.  F.  Book  for  reading  the  manuscript  and 
making  helpful  suggestions;  and  to  the  many 
students  at  The  University  of  Chicago  and 
at  Indiana  University,  who  by  their  keen 
interest  and  their  scientific  zeal  have  stimu- 
lated the  author  to  prosecute  his  quest  towards 
a  scientific  approach  to  the  mind  of  the  buyer. 

H.  D.  K. 
June,  1921. 


CONTENTS 


INTRODUCTION 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

I    THE  STREAM  OP  THOUGHT  IN  THE  SALE  3 


STAGE  ONE— ATTENTION 

II    IMPORTANT  FACTORS   IN   ATTRACTING  ATTEN- 
TION      29 

III  THE  INFLUENCE  OF  REPETITION 44 

IV  SELLING  TO  THE  COLLECTIVE  BUYER      ...      54 

STAGE  TWO— INTEREST 

V    How  TO  AROUSE  INTEREST  IN  A  COMMODITY    .  77 

VI    GOOD  FEELING  A  REQUISITE 89 

VII    THE  IMAGINATION  OF  THE  BUYER    ....  97 

STAGE  THREE— DESIRE 
VTH    DESIRE 109 

STAGE  FOUR— CONFIDENCE 
IX    CONFIDENCE  AND  GOOD  WILL 117 

STAGE  FIVE— DECISION  AND  ACTION 
X    THE  POWER  OF  REASON 131 

XI    INSTINCTIVI  FACTORS 139 

be 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTXK 

XII    SUGGESTION  IN  THE  SALE  .......    152 

XIII    THE  PSYCHOLOGICAL  MOMENT          ....     169 


STAGE  SIX— SATISFACTION 

XIV    SATISFACTION  THE  GOAL    .     .     . .    -M    ...  .     .    185 

BIBLIOGRAPHY    ....     ...    ...    ...     .     .  .     .     203 

INDEX  209 


INTRODUCTION 


CHAPTER  ONE 

THE  STREAM  OF  THOUGHT  IN  THE  SALE 

Successful  selling  demands  psychological  point 
of  view.  A  sale  is  an  interaction  between  two 
people  who  are  exchanging  economic  goods. 
This  interaction  consists  of  a  series  of  changes 
occurring  in  both  buyer  and  seller.  The  lat- 
ter makes  certain  moves  which  call  forth  re- 
sponsive movements  from  the  former. 

The  moves  made  by  the  seller  may  consist 
of  various  things:  display  of  goods;  verbal 
descriptions;  pictures;  even  the  proffer  of  a 
friendly  cigar.  The  responses  of  the  buyer 
may  be  equally  variable :  entering  a  store  for 
a  box  of  candy  displayed  in  the  window; 
reaching  into  the  pocket  for  a  coin;  sending 
for  a  catalog;  dispatching  a  written  order. 

In  the  light  of  such  variable  conditions  we 
must  recognize  as  forms  of  selling:  adver- 
tising, window  display,  sales  correspondence, 
and  personal  salesmanship.  Although  each 
of  these  modes  of  selling  has  its  peculiar 
problems  and  methods,  all  have  one  aim  in 

3 


4          THE  MIND  OF  THE  BUYER 

common — to  influence  the  mind  of  the  buyer. 
Any  seller,  then,  who  wishes  to  be  successful, 
must  study  the  mind  of  the  buyer — in  other 
words,  must  take  the  psychological  point  of 
view. 

The  mind  a  stream.  In  discussing  the 
mind  of  the  buyer  we  may  profitably  use 
James's  figure  of  speech  and  picture  it  as  a 
stream,  consisting  of  the  sum-total  of  mental 
processes  going  on  within  the  individual: 
ideas,  sensations,  feelings,  volitions  and  ac- 
tions. There  are  two  characteristics  of  the 
stream  which  deserve  special  notice: 

Characteristics  of  the  mental  stream. 

1.  The  mind  never  stands  still.     It  is  in 
constant  motion.     The  thoughts  of  one  mo- 
ment are  quickly  replaced  by  others.     The 
mind  of  the  buyer  in  a  sale  consists  of  a  pro- 
cession of  sensations,  feelings,  and  willings. 
From  the  beginning  to  the  conclusion  of  the 
sale  these  flow  along  like  a  stream. 

2.  The  mind  is  complex.    It  is  not  a  simple 
thing  that  we  are  dealing  with,  but  an  organ- 
ism of  many  qualities  and  powers.     It  will 
be  our   task  in   this  book   to  describe   this 
stream;  to  slow  it  up  and  examine  its  con- 
tents.   We  shall  analyze  it  in  two  directions — 
longitudinally  and  cross-sectionally.     In  the 


STREAM  OF  THOUGHT  IN  SALE      5 

first  case  we  shall  divide  it  into  several  rather 
well-defined  stages,  each  of  which  we  shall 
study  separately.  In  the  second,  we  shall  cut 
cross-sections  at  critical  points  and  examine 
the  contents  minutely  under  our  psychological 
microscope. 

The  stages  in  a  sale.    The  mental  stream  of 
the  buyer  may  be  divided  into  six  stages : 

I  Attention 

II  Interest 

III  Desire 

IV  Confidence 

V    Decision  and  Action 
VI     Satisfaction 


Stage  I 


II 


III 


IV 


VI 


FIG.  1.    Th«  stream  of  thought  in  a  sale. 

(Reproduced  by  kind  permission  of  J  B.  Lippincott  Company,  from  the 
author's  "Manual  for  the  Study  of  the  Psychology  of  Advertising 
and  Selling.") 

The  order  just  mentioned  may  not  be 
strictly  adhered  to  in  every  sale.  For  in- 
stance, confidence  may  precede  desire  and 
even  interest;  interest  may  come  simultane- 
ously with  attention.  Generally  speaking, 


6          THE  MIND  OF  THE  BUYER 

however,  the  order  given  above  will  truly 
represent  conditions,  especially  in  the  initial 
purchase  of  an  article. 

We  should  also  recognize  the  fact  that  the 
stages  are  not  necessarily  equal  in  length. 
The  initial  pulse  of  attention  may  last  but  a 
moment  before  merging  into  interest.  Inter- 
est may  then  endure  for  an  hour.  Moreover 
a  single  stage  may  vary  in  length  under  dif- 
ferent circumstances.  Interest  may  endure 
for  a  minute,  an  hour,  a  day  or  a  year. 

Gross-sectional  analysis  of  the  stream.  Though 
we  shall  regard  the  mind  as  an  ever-flowing 
stream,  still  we  shall  occasionally  be  obliged 
to  act  as  though  we  could  stop  it.  At  im- 
portant stages  we  shall  retard  it  and  take 
cross-sections  of  it.  Were  we  to  represent 
these  diagramatically  we  should  use  a  circle 
similar  to  that  of  Figure  2,  and  represent  the 
sensations,  ideas,  and  feelings  of  the  buyer 
by  symbolic  designs.  We  should  bear  in 
mind  throughout  that  this  procedure  is  really 
an  artificial  one.  Strictly  speaking  we  can- 
not stop  the  mind  in  its  flow  and  make  detailed 
pictures  of  its  contents.  Nevertheless  we  shall 
employ  this  method  as  far  as  possible,  being 
justified  by  the  facts  thus  obtainable  and  the 
clearness  of  analysis  thus  made  possible. 


STREAM  OF  THOUGHT  IN  SALE      7 

Other  points  of  view.  In  taking  the  psycho- 
logical point  of  view  we  do  not  mean  to  imply 
that  the  only  problems  in  selling  are  those 
of  a  psychological  nature.  Particularly  im- 
portant are  those  of  an  ethical  and  economic 
nature.  And  before  proceeding  with  our 


Fro.  9.    Cross-section  of  stream  of  thought. 

(Reproduced  by  kind  permission  of  J.  B.  Lippincott  Company,  from  the 
author's  "Manual  for  the  Study  of  the  Psychology  of  Advertising 
and  Selling.") 


psychological  descriptions  we  should  observe 
the  relations  between  these  several  points  of 
view. 

When  we  regard  a  sale  from  the  ethical 
point  of  view  we  stress  the  rightness  or  wrong- 
ness  of  the  transaction.  We  ask:  Is  this 
practice  right?  Are  the  goods  being  sold  at 
a  fair  price?  Are  they  being  sold  with  a 
consideration  for  the  rights  of  competitors? 


8          THE  MIND  OF  THE  BUYER 

The  ethical  side  of  selling  is  exceedingly  im- 
portant from  the  standpoint  of  the  welfare  of 
society.  And  it  is  gratifying  to  note  that  the 
standards  of  ethics  in  the  business  world  are 
rising.  We  shall  present  some  evidence  for 
this  in  a  later  section  of  the  book  (page  192). 

When  we  regard  a  sale  from  the  economic 
point  of  view  we  ask  such  questions  as  these : 
What  are  the  sources  of  the  commodity  under 
consideration?  What  agencies  are  required 
to  bring  it  from  source  to  buyer?  What  are 
the  separate  elements  that  enter  in  to  de- 
termine the  price?  It  is  needless  to  enumerate 
more  questions.  Every  business  man  formu- 
lates scores  of  them  daily;  for  whether  one 
neglects  other  points  of  view  or  not,  one  is 
bound  to  consider  the  economic  point  of  view. 

Important  as  are  these  two  aspects  of  the 
sale  we  shall  not  stress  them  in  this  book. 
We  shall  assume  that  no  reader  will  under- 
take any  practice  which  is  not  ethically  justi- 
fied. And  we  shall  assume  that  the  profes- 
sional economists  will  take  care  of  the 
economic  issues  involved.  So  we  shall  con- 
centrate our  attention  upon  the  psychological 
aspects. 

In  undertaking  to  psychologize  about  the 
conduct  of  the  buyer,  let  it  be  understood  that 


STEEAM  OF  THOUGHT  IN  SALE      9 

we  purpose  to  catalogue  the  sensations,  ideas 
and  feelings  animating  him  and  to  discover 
the  springs  of  his  action.  This  purpose  is 
inherent  in  the  very  definition  of  psychology, 
"the  science  which  aims  to  describe  and  ex- 
plain the  conduct  of  living  creatures."  What 
distinguishes  our  point  of  view,  then,  from 
others,  is  that  we  seek  merely  to  give  a  com- 
plete description  and  explanation  of  the 
buyer's  conduct,  and  explain  how  to  manipu- 
late it. 

Old  and  new  conceptions  of  psychology.  In 
adopting  this  conception  of  psychology  we 
should  mark  it  off  clearly  from  the  conception 
held  by  some  people.  For  the  most  part  the 
public  regards  psychology  as  something  mys- 
terious and  occult — a  matter  for  hypnotism 
and  clairvoyance,  a  kind  of  divining-rod, 
a  mesmeric  potion,  or  weird  incantation  by 
means  of  which  a  seller  may  cast  a  spell  over 
a  buyer  and  compel  him  to  purchase. 

This  bizarre  superstition  regarding  psy- 
chology is  very  deep-rooted.  It  dates  back 
many  centuries,  even  to  the  time  of  Aristotle 
(384-22  B.  c.)  who  wrote  the  first  psychologi- 
cal text-book.  Aristotle  defined  psychology 
as  the  "science  of  the  soul."  He  regarded  the 
soul  as  that  part  of  man  which  thinks,  feels, 


10        THE  MIND  OF  THE  BUYER 

and  wills ;  and  he  sought  to  determine  whence 
it  came  and  where  it  went  after  death. 

Aristotle's  kind  of  psychology  endured  for 
many  hundreds  of  years,  in  fact,  until  the 
seventeenth  century.  About  this  time  Locke, 
Hume  and  others  began  to  assert :  Though  we 
have  been  trying  for  centuries  to  discover  the 
nature,  origin  and  source  of  the  soul,  we  have 
not  succeeded.  Let  us,  then,  abandon  these 
questions  and  relegate  them  to  the  realm  of 
things  beyond  our  ken.  Instead  let  us  ob- 
serve the  events  that  occur  during  the  lifetime 
of  an  individual.  In  other  words,  let  us  con- 
sider the  mind  only  as  it  relates  to  man's 
bodily  conduct. 

This  advice  was  heeded  and  psychology 
came  to  be  defined  as  the  "science  of  mind" 
or  "consciousness."  This  definition  endures 
at  the  present  time,  colored  in  the  popular 
mind  by  relics  of  Aristotle's  mysticism. 

Since  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth  century 
another  conception  of  psychology  has  arisen. 
During  the  nineteenth  century  the  physical 
sciences — physics  and  chemistry — developed 
greatly;  and  the  biological  sciences — botany, 
zoology,  and  physiology — arose.  Under  the 
influence  of  these  developments,  psychology 
began  to  change  in  subject-matter  and  method. 


STREAM  OF  THOUGHT  IN  SALE     11 

(1)  The  influence  of  bodily  conditions  upon 
the  mind  came  to  be  more  clearly  recognized; 
and  (2)  the  methods  used  in  the  other  rapidly- 
developing  sciences  were  timidly  applied. 
Many  of  these  methods  worked,  particularly 
those  used  in  the  investigation  of  animal  be- 
havior. As  a  result,  psychology  came  to  be 
defined  as  the  "science  of  consciousness  and 
behavior."  (Some  extremists  have  gone  so 
far  as  to  leave  out  the  word  consciousness  and 
call  it  the  "science  of  behavior.")  This  defini- 
tion, though  not  vitally  objectionable  to  most 
psychologists  of  to-day,  nevertheless  carries 
some  undesirable  implications.  Accordingly 
we  shall  adopt  a  slightly  different  wording: 
"the  science  which  aims  to  describe  and  ex- 
plain the  conduct  of  living  creatures." 

After  this  brief  historical  resume  the  reader 
may  understand  why  in  the  popular  mind 
psychology  continues  to  be  identified  with 
mystical,  abstract,  and  ethereal  things.  He 
may  also  see  that  the  real  progress  of  the 
science  has  been  away  from  mysticism;  that 
to-day  it  is  just  as  matter-of  fact  and  "earthly" 
as  the  sciences  of  physics,  geography,  and 
astronomy.  This  kinship  with  the  other 
sciences  will  be  shown  more  clearly  in  our 
next  paragraph  where  we  shall  discuss  the 


12         THE  MIND  OF  THE  BUYER 

method  of  psychology  and  show  that  it  is 
identical  with  that  employed  by  other  sciences. 
Scientific  method — experiment.  In  describ- 
ing and  explaining  the  actions  of  the  buyer, 
psychology  employs  the  method  common  to 
all  sciences — experiment.  The  procedure  of 
an  experiment  may  be  described  as  follows : 

1.  To  observe  the  phenomenon  under  con- 
sideration.     To   observe   systematically,    not 
spasmodically  or  sporadically.     Indeed,  to  be 
thoroughly  scientific  we  must  make  our  ob- 
servations under  carefully  controlled  condi- 
tions— usually  in  the  laboratory  where  we  can 
control  them  more  easily  than  in  the  hurly- 
burly  of  everyday  life.    By  "control"  we  mean 
to  arrange  conditions  so  that  we  may  repeat 
our   observations    (for  in   making   scientific 
measurements  we  cannot  rely  upon  merely 
one  observation) ;  watch  one  factor  at  a  time; 
and  change  conditions  at  will.     In  brief,  an 
experiment  is  "a  series  of  observations  which 
can  be  repeated,  isolated  and  varied." 

2.  We   must  record   our   measures.     We 
must  use  great  care  in  doing  this;  describing 
exactly  the  conditions  under  which  we  per- 
form our  experiment,  so  that  another  experi- 
menter working  under  the  same  conditions 
may  secure  similar  results.     We  record  our 


STREAM  OF  THOUGHT  IN  SALE     1? 

results,  be  it  understood,  in  mathematical 
terms.  Accordingly  a  very  important  part 
of  our  records  will  be  figures. 

3.  Our  next  step  is  to  tabulate  these  fig- 
ures in  orderly  array,  then  to  summarize  them 
in  a  concise  form  so  that  they  may  be  readily 
perceived. 

4.  On  the  basis  of  the  results  secured  we 
draw  conclusions. 

In  order  to  illustrate  this  procedure  we 
shall  give  an  experiment  which  is  sometimes 
performed  in  the  psychological  laboratory: 

A  PSYCHOLOGICAL  EXPERIMENT 

(Adapted  from  C.  H.  Judd,  "Laboratory  Manual  of 
Psychology"  by  kind  permission  of  Ginn  &  Co.) 

Hold  page  15  directly  in  front  of  the  eyes  at  a  distance 
of  about  twenty  inches.  Though  these  two  lines  are  equal 
length  (10  centimeters  =  4  inches),  the  horizontal  line  ap% 
pears  to  be  shorter  than  the  vertical  one.  There  is  a 
psychological  fact  at  the  bottom  of  this:  namely,  that  the 
apparent  length  of  a  line  depends  to  some  degree  upon  its 
position.  This  much  is  evident  from  casual  observation. 
But  to  have  a  scientific  statement  of  the  fact  we  must  state 
how  much  effect  is  produced  by  changing  th*  line  from 
the  horizontal  to  the  vertical  position.  We  must  measure 
the  effect  and  state  it  in  mathematical  terms. 

In  order  to  do  this,  cover  the  vertical  line  with  a  piece 
of  plain  paper,  setting  the  page  up  in  front  of  the  eyes  at 
a  distance  of  twenty  inches.  Then,  using  the  horizontal 
line  as  a  standard,  draw  on  a  piece  of  plain  paper,  a  vertical 


14         THE  MIND  OF  THE  BUYER 

line  which  appears  to  you  to  equal  the  horizontal  line. 
(Do  not  try  to  make  allowance  for  the  discrepancy  which 
you  now  know  exists.) 

If  you  measure  the  line  you  have  just  drawn  you  will 
probably  find  that  it  is  less  than  four  inches;  thus  showing 
that  you  judged  the  line  longer  when  in  the  vertical  posi- 
tion, than  in  the  horizontal.  And  you  can  state  how  much 
longer  you  judged  it  by  subtracting  the  length  of  your 
copied  line  from  the  length  of  the  standard.  But  this  single 
observation  is  not  sufficient  to  permit  a  scientific  conclusion. 
In  scientific  investigation  a  single  observation  is  seldom  relied 
upon.  You  must  make  more  measures.  Cover  up  the  line 
you  just  drew  and  draw  another;  cover  it  up  and  draw 
successive  lines,  covering  each  line  as  soon  as  drawn,  until 
you  have  drawn  ten. 

Now  measure  all  the  lines  and  record  the  lengths;  add 
them  and  find  the  average.  Your  series  of  measures  will 
resemble  the  series  below,  showing  the  lengths  of  lines  drawn 
by  another  experimenter  under  these  same  conditions.  The 
measures  are  stated  in  centimeters.  With  a  horizontal  line 
of  ten  centimeters  (four  inches)  as  a  standard  the  vertical 
line  was  drawn  ten  times  with  the  following  lengths: 

8.6 
8.3 

'  The   average  shows   a  difference  of   1.67 

8'4  centimeters  between  the  horizontal  standard 

and  the  vertical  copies.    This  gives  us  sound 

'  basis   for  concluding  that  under  the  condi- 

g'j  tions  of  the  experiment,  the  apparent  length 

g'g  of  a  line  changes   from   10  centimeters   to 

g'3  8.33  centimeters   when  the  line  is  changed 

'_  from  horizontal  to  vertical. 
10)83.3 

8.33 


STREAM  OF  THOUGHT  IN  SALE     15 


I 


16         THE  MIND  OF  THE  BUYER 

This  was  a  typical  psychological  experiment,  conforming 
to  our  formulation  above. 

a.  We  made  an  observation,  surrounding  it  with  all  the 
care  possible. 

b.  We  repeated  the  observation,  being  careful  to  maintain 
conditions  unchanged.     And  our  measures  were  fairly  con- 
sistent.    By  following  our  procedure  another  experimenter 
will  secure  practically  the  same  results. 

c.  We    arranged    conditions    so    that   we   might    observe 
merely  one  factor  about  the  line — the  effect  of  position  upon 
apparent  length.    We  isolated  that  factor,  disregarding  ef- 
fect of  position  upon  apparent  thickness,  brightness,  etc. 

d.  Again  we  arranged  conditions  so  that  had  we  wished 
we  might  have  varied  our  observations,  slanting  the  line  first 
at  thirty  degrees,  then  at  sixty. 

e.  Lastly,  we  measured  the  effects  and  stated  our  con- 
clusion in  quantitative  terms. 

Three  forms  of  scientific  method.  We  may 
apply  the  experimental  (scientific)  method 
to  problems  of  selling  in  three  forms: 

1.  "Statistical  investigation  of  returns." 
We  may  arrange  conditions  in  a  selling  cam- 
paign so  that  the  returns  may  be  measured. 
By  successive  trials  of  different  methods  and 
comparisons  between  returns,  we  may  deter- 
mine which  method  is  the  most  effective. 
Good  examples  of  this  in  the  field  of  advertis- 
ing are  furnished  by  Shryer. 

This  scientific  "investigation  of  returns," 
however  desirable  it  may  be,  is  many  times 
not  feasible.  The  returns  from  many  sales- 


STKEAM  OF  THOUGHT  IN  SALE    17 

mediums,  such  as  bill-boards  and  car-cards, 
are  not  measurable.  Moreover,  the  compon- 
ents of  a  selling  campaign  are  so  numerous 
and  various  that  it  is  difficult  to  isolate  the 
several  items  and  ascertain  what  part  of  the 
returns  is  due  to  each.  Finally,  the  method 
is  bound  to  be  attended  by  some  waste  of  effort 
and  money.  Altogether  despite  its  advantage 
of  certainty  of  information  the  method  can- 
not be  employed  alone  and  in  wholesale 
fashion. 

2.  "Laboratory  method."  A  substitute  for 
the  above  has  been  proposed  in  the  laboratory 
method,  according  to  which  conditions  are 
arranged  as  nearly  as  possible  like  the  con- 
ditions of  the  market ;  persons  are  chosen  typi- 
cal of  the  prospective  buyers  of  the  com- 
modity; and  measures  are  obtained  of  their 
reactions.  In  this  manner  various  sales  de- 
vices may  be  tried  out  before  being  used  on 
a  large  scale.  This  method  seems  to  promise 
good  results  and  undoubtedly  may  throw  light 
upon  many  problems  of  selling,  particularly 
in  the  preparation  of  sales  appeals  through 
the  printed  page.  Suppose  that  we  are  laying 
out  an  advertisement,  and  wish  to  know 
whether  upper-case  type  (capitals)  or  lower- 
case type  (small  letters)  will  make  the  more 


18        THE  MIND  OF  THE  BUYER 

legible  headline.  To  investigate  this  we 
might  enter  the  psychological  laboratory,  ex- 
pose sample  headlines  through  an  instrument 
called  the  tachistoscope ;  measure  the  speed 
with  which  a  number  of  persons  can  perceive 
the  headlines  in  the  two  kinds  of  type;  tabu- 
late our  results;  collate  them;  and  conclude 
which  type  is  the  more  legible.  Many  ap- 
plications of  this  form  of  scientific  method  are 
described  in  the  several  books  on  the  Psy- 
chology of  Advertising.  We  may  confidently 
affirm  that  the  method  has  demonstrated  its 
adaptability  to  the  solution  of  a  number  of 
problems  of  selling.  With  certain  problems, 
however,  it  can  hardly  be  used  effectively, 
owing  in  part  to  an  inevitable  artificiality  of 
the  laboratory  atmosphere. 

3.  But  we  have  not  exhausted  the  possi- 
bilities of  scientific  method  in  the  investiga- 
tion of  problems  of  selling.  In  case  neither 
of  the  above  two  methods  is  adaptable,  or  in 
case  we  wish  to  corroborate  our  findings  by 
other  kinds  of  information,  we  may  secure 
light  from  still  another  direction.  Our  aim, 
be  it  remembered,  is  to  discover  with  scientific 
accuracy  the  most  effective  way  to  do  a  thing 
before  we  proceed  to  do  it.  If  we  cannot  ac- 
complish this  in  the  market  or  in  the  labora- 


STREAM  OF  THOUGHT  IN  SALE     19 

tory,  we  may  appeal  to  the  experience  of 
other  sellers  who  have  faced  our  problem; 
and  by  observing  their  solutions,  we  may 
govern  our  procedure. 

How  discover  their  experiences?  To  ask 
them  would  evoke  contradictions  and  opinions 
of  different  degrees  of  reliability.  Further- 
more, since  we  seek  scientific  formulations 
of  our  facts  we  must  have  figures  instead  of 
opinions.  How  shall  we  reduce  the  experi- 
ences of  sellers  to  numerical  terms? 

The  answer  is,  Use  the  "historical  method." 
Investigate  the  practices  of  the  sellers  of  the 
past  and  observe  the  ways  in  which  they 
solved  the  problems  that  confront  us. 

For  example,  in  answering  "historically" 
the  question  propounded  above :  Is  it  in  gen- 
eral more  profitable  to  use  upper-case  or 
lower-case  type  in  headlines?,  one  would  go 
to  the  files  of  newspapers  and  magazines  for 
many  years  back,  and  ascertain  the  percentage 
of  headlines  in  small  letters.  An  investigation 
of  this  nature  by  the  author  disclosed  the 
fact  that  advertisers  have  been  using  with 
increasing  frequency  lower-case  headlines. 
Whereas  in  1905  sixty-three  per  cent  of  the 
headlines  in  full-page  advertisements  in  the 
Literary  Digest  were  in  lower-case  type,  in 


20        THE  MIND  OF  THE  BUYER 

1920  the  number  had  increased  to  seventy-six 
per  cent.     (See  Fig.  4.)    ^ 

Another  illustration  of  the  "historical" 
method :  A  number  of  firms  desired  to  deter- 
mine the  b«st  method  of  selecting  salesmen. 


1905  1910  1915  1920 

FIG.  4.    Showing  the  increase  in  the  use  of  lower-case 
type  for  headlines  between  1905  and  1920. 

They  formed  a  cooperative  bureau  which 
examined  the  practices  of  all  the  firms;  tabu- 
lated them  and  combined  the  results,  embody- 
ing them  into  a  system  by  which  all  might 
select  their  salesmen. 

In  employing  the  "historical"  method  we 
make  use  of  several  assumptions: 


STREAM  OF  THOUGHT  IN  SALE    21 

a.  The  practices  which  have  persisted  over 
a  period  of  years  have  probably  been  of  value. 
We  infer  either  that  those  firms  which  did 
not  follow  these  practices  did  not  make  enough 
money  to  enable  them  to  continue  to  adver- 
tise;  or  that  those   which   did   continue   to 
advertise,  discovered  the  difference  between 
valueless  and  valuable  practices  and  adopted 
the  latter. 

We  must  not  assume  that  sellers  made  these 
changes  as  a  result  of  conscious  discoveries. 
They  worked  mainly  by  trial  and  error.  As 
indicated  in  Figure  4,  they  discovered  the 
usefulness  of  lower-case  type  in  headlines  only 
after  a  long-extended  period  of  experimenta- 
tion. 

We  may  regard  modern  selling  practices, 
then,  as  products  of  unconscious  evolution. 
In  the  struggle  for  existence  in  the  world  of 
publicity,  certain  features  have  survived  be- 
cause of  certain  psychological  elements  of 
strength  and  fitness.  They  exemplify  a  sort 
of  economic  "survival  of  the  fittest." 

b.  A    second    assumption    we    make    in 
utilizing  the  "historical"  method  is  that  if 
sellers  had  studied  the  practices  of  their  pre- 
decessors they  might  have  avoided  some  errors 
and  might  have  'eliminated  much  wastage. 


22        THE  MIND  OF  THE  BUYER 

And  we  assume  that  by  surveying  the  prac- 
tices of  the  past  and  by  discovering  which  ones 
have  survived  and  which  have  failed,  we  may 
modify  our  practices  and  find  a  shorter  and 
more  economical  road  to  business  success. 

We  repeat  that  we  are  not  proposing  the 
historical  method  as  a  formula  for  the  solu- 
tion of  all  selling  problems.  We  advocate  it 
merely  as  one  form  of  scientific  investigation 
which  will  permit  us  to  supplement  and  cor- 
roborate information  secured  by  other  means. 

Indeed  we  cannot  regard  either  one  of  these 
methods  as  sufficient  for  the  approach  to  sell- 
ing problems.  At  best  each  throws  only  a  bit 
of  light  upon  the  entire  situation.  One 
method  may  be  better  adapted  to  one  type  of 
problem  than  is  another  method.  And  one 
may  be  more  adaptable  to  one  type  of  problem 
than  to  another  type.  In  most  cases  probably 
two  or  all  three  of  the  methods  will  be  found 
useful;  each  one  supplementing  the  results 
secured  through  the  others. 

After  this  discussion  of  the  history  and 
methods  of  psychology,  the  reader  will  see 
that  modern  psychology  has  no  hint  of  hocus- 
pocus  in  its  procedure;  that  it  is  far  from 
being  the  mesmeric  game  of  popular  fancy. 
Rather  that  it  is  a  serious  matter  of  labora- 


STKEAM  OF  THOUGHT  IN  SALE    23 

tory  apparatus,  statistical  tables  and  graphs. 
Instead  of  donning  the  crescent-decorated 
robe  of  the  clairvoyant,  the  psychologist  rolls 
up  his  shirt-sleeves  and  enters  the  advertising- 
copy  room,  the  factory,  the  market — any  place 
where  human  conduct  may  be  found — with  a 
slide-rule  under  his  arm. 

As  we  enter  upon  the  psychological  study  of 
the  sale  we  shall  adhere  as  rigidly  as  possible 
to  the  method  of  science.  We  shall  avoid 
the  vague  and  easy  formulations  of  arm-chair 
psychology,  and  endeavor  to  make  no  state- 
ment which  cannot  be  supported  by  facts  se- 
cured through  experimental  research.  Where 
we  lack  such  information  we  shall  attempt 
to  outline  the  steps  by  which  it  may  be  se- 
cured. Wherever  we  give  opinion  we  shall 
label  it  as  such.  Though  this  may  prevent 
us  from  making  downright,  dogmatic  state- 
ments regarding  certain  points  that  some 
readers  would  like  to  have  settled;  still  it 
will  testify  to  our  ardor  for  truth,  and  will 
impress  upon  the  reader  the  chief  message  of 
the  book :  namely,  that  the  psychology  of  sell- 
ing must  be  developed  according  to  the  rigid 
methods  of  experiment. 

"Rule  of  thumb"  versus  scientific  psychology. 
After  we  have  followed  the  hard  and  fast 


24         THE  MIND  OF  THE  BUYER 

procedure  of  scientific  method  in  solving  a 
problem,  we  can  conclude:  "I  know."  The 
aim  of  science  is  to  give  positive  knowledge 
(the  word  science  is  derived  from  the  Latin 
scientia,  knowledge)  and  it  is  this  quality, 
and  others  which  we  shall  enumerate,  that 
differentiate  scientific  business  psychology 
from  the  unscientific  psychology  of  most 
business  men.  For  we  must  admit  that  suc- 
cessful business  men  use  a  form  of  psychology. 
They  describe  and  explain  human  conduct, 
sometimes  in  a  very  effective  manner.  In 
what  respects  is  their  psychology  different 
from  the  scientific  brand? 

1.  It  is  individual.     Though  valuable  as 
far  as  it  goes,  it  is  limited  by  the  bounds  of 
one  person's  experience.    It  is,  therefore,  not 
representative     of     all     possible    situations. 
Scientific  psychology,  however,  is  based  upon 
a  large  (theoretically  infinite)  number  of  ex- 
periences drawn  from  all  sources. 

2.  Kule  of  thumb  psychology  is  particular. 
The  devices  which  it  teaches  are  applicable 
only  to  situations  which  one  man  has  met. 
The  findings  of  scientific  psychology,  however, 
are  general  in  their  application. 

3.  Rule  of  thumb  psychology  comes  with 
long,  painful  and  costly  experience.     On  the 


STREAM  OF  THOUGHT  IN  SALE      25 

contrary,  scientific  psychology  as  taught  in 
universities  and  colleges  is  learned  much 
more  easily.  The  business  man  acknowledges 
this  by  sending  his  son  to  college. 

4.  Again,  rule  of  thumb  psychology  is  un- 
systematic   and    unordered;   while    scientific 
psychology  is  systematic  and  orderly. 

5.  Finally,  the  statements  of  unscientific 
psychology  are  at  best  inaccurate.     Though 
they  may  be  near  to  the  truth  they  are  not 
exact.     Scientific  psychology  states  its  facts 
with  mathematical  precision. 

Summary.  In  this  introductory  chapter  we 
have  shown  what  we  mean  by  the  psychologi- 
cal methods  of  selling.  We  have  pictured  the 
mind  of  the  buyer  as  a  stream  which  we  shall 
describe  to  the  best  of  our  ability.  We  shall 
first  mark  off  six  stages.  Then  we  shall  cut 
cross-sections  at  various  points  and  examine 
the  contents  of  the  mind  in  detail.  In  mak- 
ing this  examination  we  repudiate  the  use  of 
necromancy  or  mysticism  of  any  sort,  and 
commit  ourselves  to  the  strict  application  of 
scientific  method.  Thus  we  shall  abandon  the 
old  rule-of-thumb  methods  and  accept  only 
proven  facts  as  our  guides  in  conducting  the 
business  of  selling. 


STAGE  ONE— ATTENTION 


CHAPTER  TWO 

IMPORTANT  FACTORS  IN  ATTRACTING  ATTENTION 

The  nature  of  attention.  In  the  preceding 
chapter  we  likened  the  mind  of  the  buyer  to 
a  stream  constantly  in  motion  and  highly 
complicated.  We  formulated  our  purpose :  to 
describe  and  explain  the  stream  in  its  flow. 
The  method:  to  cut  cross-sections  at  various 
important  stages  and  to  analyze  them  under 
our  psychological  microscope. 

The  first  stage  that  we  shall  analyze  is  at- 
tention. To  secure  the  attention  of  the  buyer 
is  the  seller's  first  task.  It  is  often  fraught 
with  difficulty.  For  the  buyer's  mental 
stream  is  flowing  along  placidly,  charged  with 
thoughts  relating  to  his  personal  affairs.  The 
seller,  who  brings  forward  a  new  article, 
foreign,  perhaps,  to  these  affairs,  is  bound 
to  encounter  some  difficulty  in  thrusting  it 
into  the  stream.  His  task  is  more  difficult 
from  the  fact  that  he  must  place  his  com- 
modity not  merely  at  the  edge  of  the  stream 
where  it  may  remain  practically  unnoticed. 

29 


30        THE  MIND  OF  THE  BUYER 

He  must  thrust  it,  as  it  were,  completely  into 
the  middle  of  the  stream.  Only  thus  can  he 
secure  for  it  a  high  degree  of  attention. 

The  ease  with  which  the  seller  may  do  this 
depends  partly  upon  the  rate  of  flow  of  the 
stream  and  partly  upon  the  contents  of  it. 
Sometimes  the  current  flows  sluggishly,  as 
when  the  buyer  sits  without  occupation  in  a 
street-car  and  casts  his  eyes  carelessly  from 
one  advertising  card  to  another.  On  such  oc- 
casions it  is  easy  for  the  seller  to  enter  the 
stream. 

At  other  times  the  mind  flows  with  torren- 
tial vehemence,  as  when  the  buyer  is  consum- 
mating a  deal  on  the  floor  of  the  stock  ex- 
change or  watching  an  exciting  ball  game. 
Under  such  circumstances  it  is  difficult  to 
inject  a  new  object  into  the  center  of  attention. 

Further  difficulty  is  encountered  if  the  con- 
tents of  the  mind  are  quite  foreign  to  the  com- 
modity under  consideration.  Under  such 
circumstances  the  seller  is  obliged  to  prepare 
the  mind  beforehand — an  operation  about 
which  we  shall  talk  in  detail  in  later  chapters. 

Whatever  the  difficulties  may  be,  the  seller 
must  make  a  start  by  attracting  the  atten- 
tion. Hence  we  shall  consider  some  devices 
by  means  of  which  to  claim  it.  No  single  rule 


ATTRACTING  ATTENTION  31 

can  be  laid  down  applicable  to  all  rates  of 
flow,  all  commodities  and  all  sales  mediums. 
Nevertheless  there  are  certain  factors  which 
are  usually  effective. 

Intensity.  The  first  is  intensity.  (By  in- 
tense we  mean  "strong." )  Normally  the  mind 
is  very  sensitive  to  strong  stimuli:  bright 
lights,  loud  noises,  strong  odors,  severe  pres- 
sures, extreme  temperatures,  intense  pains. 

We  shall  more  clearly  understand  the  force 
inherent  in  intensity  if  we  inquire  its  origin 
and  rationale.  When  we  consider  man  his- 
torically we  must  regard  him  as  the  inheritor 
of  various  traits  from  past  generations.  For 
many  generations  his  forbears  have  been  sub- 
jected to  certain  environmental  conditions. 
To  those  that  jeopardized  their  welfare  they 
gave  quick  attention:  for  example,  to  bright 
lights  which  might  put  out  the  eyes;  to  loud 
sounds  which  might  split  the  ear-drums.  The 
individuals  who  failed  to  take  notice  of  such 
things  were  injured  or  killed.  Since  to  attend 
to  intense  things  has  tended  to  prolong  life, 
then,  the  habit  has  become  ingrained  within 
the  members  of  the  human  species  as  an  in- 
eradicable  trait. 

Many  other  traits  of  the  buyer  may  be  thus 
accounted  for  on  an  hereditary  basis.  We 


32        THE  MIND  OF  THE  BUYER 

shall  devote  an  entire  chapter  to  them  at  a 
later  stage.  For  the  present  we  shall  pass 
them  by,  merely  noting  the  excellent  reason 
why  certain  kinds  of  objects  readily  attract 
the  attention. 

This  gives  us  a  hint  as  to  the  method  of 
arresting  and  penetrating  the  mental  stream 
of  the  buyer:  Choose  a  stimulus  stronger 
than  the  other  objects  round  about  him.  In 
olden  times  the  town  crier  used  a  bell ;  the  fish- 
monger, a  horn.  To-day  the  advertiser  uses 
shrieking  bill  boards.  The  salesman  who  de- 
pends upon  personal  contact  rarely  uses  in- 
tensity in  attracting  the  attention  of  his 
prospective  customer;  probably  because  of  its 
frequent  rudeness  and  vulgarity.  If  he  can 
devise  some  elegant  and  inoffensive  way, 
however,  of  utilizing  it,  he  will  highly  aug- 
ment his  chances  of  securing  favorable  atten- 
tion. 

Extensity.  The  second  factor  is  extensity, 
by  which  we  mean  size,  bigness,  magnitude. 
The  mind  is  very  susceptible  to  the  influence 
of  bigness.  In  its  rapid  flow  it  may  neglect 
the  small  objects  seeking  sheUer  in  its  midst, 
and  shove  them  unheedingly  to  one  side.  But 
it  can  hardly  do  so  to  the  big  ones.  An  auto- 
ist  bowling  along  a  country  road  can  scarcely 


ATTKACTING  ATTENTION  33 

ignore  a  monstrous  bill  board  looming  up  at 
a  turn  in  the  road.  A  pedestrian  strolling  up 
Broadway  cannot  easily  ignore  the  hugest  of 
the  signs  piercing  the  sky. 

Besides  this  impulsion  due  to  the  brutality 
of  the  assault  upon  the  senses,  magnitude 
has  still  another  effect.  It  makes  us  read 
into  the  object  so  glaringly  displayed  quali- 
ties of  superiority  which  it  does  not  possess. 
We  tend  to  associate  superiority  in  size  with 
superiority  in  quality.  We  tend  to  judge  the 
man  with  the  largest  diamond  or  automobile 
as  the  richest  one.  Americans  as  a  people  are 
almost  obsessed  by  the  idea  of  immensity. 
They  regard  it  practically  as  a  virtue  in  itself. 
The  typical  American  city  boasts  of  its  vast 
area,  sidewalk  mileage,  even  the  amount  of 
its  debt  for  public  improvements. 

There  is  another  psychological  effect  inher- 
ent in  magnitude.  Whenever  we  see  a  thing 
that  is  relatively  large,  we  tend  to  judge  it 
larger  than  it  really  is.  We  exaggerate  the 
size  of  things  above  their  actual  dimensions. 
In  telling  about  a  large  diamond  we  report 
that  it  is  "as  big  as  a  hen's  egg!" 

This  habit  may  appear  despicable  and  un- 
worthy, nevertheless  it  is  an  integral  part  of 
human  nature  and  must  be  taken  into  account 


34        THE  MIND  OF  THE  BUYER 

by  one  who  wishes  to  influence  the  human 
mind.  Probably  we  should  regard  it  as  ex- 
plainable by  the  same  principle  we  used  in 
explaining  man's  affinity  for  intensity:  as  a 
racial  habit  (perhaps  instinct)  wrought  dur- 
ing the  struggle  for  existence,  when  man  was 
obliged  to  take  notice  of  things  larger  than 
himself  in  order  to  escape  being  overcome  by 
them. 

Whatever  be  its  explanation  it  offers  a  live 
cue  to  the  seller,  and  suggests  that  he  may  in- 
crease his  chances  of  success  by  operating  on 
a  large  scale.  The  practice  of  successful 
sellers  exemplifies  this.  "Probably  no  man 
in  the  world  has  more  unqualified  belief  in 
the  power  of  [big]  advertising  than  William 
Wrigley,  Jr.  In  the  twelve  years  since  his 
first  great  national  campaign  he  has  spent 
more  than  $20,000,000  to  spread  his  message 
in  eighteen  languages  across  the  civilized 
world."  "As  a  result  of  one  of  his  huge  con- 
tracts each  of  the  62,000  street,  subway  and 
elevated  cars  in  operation  in  the  United  States 
carries  one  or  more  of  his  cards.  Above 
Times  Square,  New  York,  flashes  nightly  an 
electric  sign  which  costs  $104,000  a  year." 
"In  1915  he  collected  every  telephone  direc- 
tory in  the  country  and  mailed  four  sample 


ATTRACTING  ATTENTION          35 

sticks  of  his  gum  to  the  1,500,000  listed  sub- 
scribers. He  duplicated  this  campaign  in 
1919,  this  time  to  more  than  7,000,000  homes. 
His  advertising  expenditures  for  the  one  year 
pass  the  f  3,500,000  mark."  *  The  tremendous 
growth  of  advertising  in  general  during  the 
past  twenty-five  years  bears  similar  evidence 
of  the  attractive  power  of  magnitude  in  the 
form  of  increasing  use  of  extensive  space. 
An  investigation  conducted  by  the  author 
showed  that  the  number  of  full-page  advertise- 
ments in  one  periodical  increased  five-fold 
in  the  decade  1910-19. 

Change.  Our  third  proposition  is  that 
change  has  great  value  in  arresting  attention 
— change  in  any  sense :  in  intensity,  extensity, 
or  nature  of  stimulus.  We  may  test  the  truth 
of  this  in  everyday  life  by  noting  that  we  are 
aware  that  the  clock  has  been  ticking,  only 
after  it  has  stopped. 

Movement.  One  very  common  form  of  change 
is  movement.  To  it  we  give  certain  and 
eager  response.  Though  for  the  most  part 
unaware  of  it,  we  shall  find,  when  we  stop  to 
think,  that  it  bulks  importantly  in  our  daily 
life.  We  sit  for  hours  by  the  ocean,  gazing 
at  nothing  but  swelling,  tossing,  jostling 

1  American  Magazine,  March,  1920,  p.  192. 


36        THE  MIND  OF  THE  BUYER 

waves;  we  lie  on  the  ground  absorbed  in  the 
clouds  that  float  across  our  vision;  we  sit  be- 
fore an  open  fire  fascinated  by  the  ever-dart- 
ing flames,  almost  to  the  point  of  hypnotiza- 
tion. 

How  explain  this  fascination?  Probably 
largely  in  terms  of  inheritance,  as  we  did  our 
affinity  for  intensity  and  extensity.  In  the 
distant  days  when  man's  progenitor  stalked 
in  the  jungles,  one  of  the  most  important 
factors  in  life  was  movement.  The  lightest 
flutter  of  a  leaf  might  indicate  the  presence 
of  a  hidden  enemy ;  the  flicker  of  a  twig  might 
signify  lurking  death.  As  a  result  our  ancestor 
was  obliged  to  give  close  attention  to  any- 
thing that  moved.  If  he  had  failed  he  would 
have  fallen  victim  one  day  to  the  destructive 
forces  surrounding  him.  As  a  result  the  off- 
spring of  primitive  man  manifested  intense 
interest  in  moving  things.  The  trait,  being 
useful  in  preserving  life,  became  ingrained 
Within  the  members  of  the  species  and  per- 
sists to  this  day. 

There  is  another  way  of  accounting  for  the 
influence  of  movement.  It  fits  into  the  very 
nature  of  mentality.  The  mind  is  like  a 
stream,  constantly  in  motion.  A  moving  ob- 
ject, then,  has  a  ready  chance  of  securing  a 


ATTRACTING  ATTENTION          37 

foothold  in  the  stream.  The  relationship  may 
be  pictured  by  imagining  two  platforms,  one 
(the  mind)  moving,  and  the  other  (the  object 
of  attention)  stationary.  To  step  from  the 
latter  to  the  former  requires  considerable 
effort.  If,  however,  we  start  the  second  in 
motion  in  the  same  direction  and  at  the  same 
rate  as  the  first,  we  can  make  the  transition 
easily.  It  is  thus  that  a  moving  object  fits 
into  the  nature  of  the  onward-flowing  mental 
processes. 

In  addition  to  this  onward  flow  of  the  total 
stream  there  is  a  form  of  movement  within 
the  stream  itself.  Eddies  are  present,  which 
keep  the  contents  of  the  stream  oscillating 
to  and  fro.  The  mind  is  so  constituted  that 
it  cannot  hold  an  object  in  the  center  for 
longer  than  an  instant.  The  reader  may  test 
this  for  himself  by  attempting  to  fixate 
steadily  the  letter  o.  Though  he  may  try 
his  best  to  maintain  it  unchanged  in  the  center 
of  his  attention,  he  will  find  that  he  cannot. 
His  attention  will  wander  from  one  part  of 
the  letter  to  another,  from  top  to  bottom,  from 
side  to  side;  and  presently,  off  the  letter  en- 
tirely to  a  nearby  flaw  in  the  paper. 

In  fixing  the  limits  to  the  time  during 
which  one  can  hold  an  object  in  attention 


38        THE  MIND  OF  THE  BUYER 

in  a  perfectly  unchanged  condition,  psycholo- 
gists have  discovered  some  evidence  that  the 
period  may  be  two  or  three  minutes,  but  far 
more  commonly,  only  a  second  or  two  in 
length.  After  this  length  of  time  in  the  vortex 
of  the  stream  an  object  must  give  way  to  an- 
other one  which  has  been  hovering  on  the 


Fra.  5. 

margin  waiting  for  a  chance  to  wedge  itself 
in.  Be  it  remembered  that  at  any  one  mo- 
ment there  are  many  things  variously  dis- 
tributed in  the  mental  stream.  A  cross-sec- 
tion would  reveal  a  condition  resembling  that 
pictured  in  Figure  5,  where  object  A  (let  it 
be  a  street-car  advertisement  of  Bunte  Cough 
Drops)  gives  way  after  a  brief  dominance 
over  the  center  of  attention,  to  object  B  (an 
adjoining  advertisement  of  Arrow  collars) ; 


ATTRACTING  ATTENTION          39 

which  in  its  turn  gives  way  to  object  C  (an 
advertisement  of  Sloan's  liniment). 

Again,  such  a  cross-section  might  be  likened 
to  a  kaleidoscope  in  which  minute  pieces  of 
varicolored  glass  continually  shift  their  posi- 
tions. That  which  was  at  the  center  drifts 
marginward  and  vice  versa. 

From  this  we  see  that  movement  is  a  capital 
device  for  the  seller  to  use,  not  merely  in  in- 
troducing his  commodity  into  the  center  of 
the  mental  stream,  but  also  in  holding  it 
there.  Now  we  see,  at  least  in  part,  the 
mechanism  by  which  we  give  attention  so 
spontaneously  to  selling  devices  which  em- 
body movement :  the  army  of  manikins  in  store 
windows  feverishly  plying  saf ety -razors ;  the 
Display  shoes  aridly  stepping  in  and  out  of 
pans  of  water. 

The  moving  electric  sign  offers  excellent 
Opportunity  for  the  exploitation  of  movement. 
It  is  demonstrably  effective.  The  reader  may 
test  himself  to-night  as  he  walks  down  Main 
Street.  Let  him  watch  himself  out  of  the 
Corner  of  his  eye,  so  to  speak ;  and  he  will  find 
himself  observing  the  moving  signs  almost 
Invariably.  He  will  be  aware  of  them  far  to 
the  right  and  left;  even  of  those  in  the  rear, 
flickering  in  his  eye-glasses.  He  will  notice, 


40        THE  MIND  OF  THE  BUYER 

also,  that  a  faint  moving  light  attracts  atten- 
tion more  quickly  than  a  strong  stationary 
one. 

A  field  with  still  greater  possibilities  of  de- 
velopment is  the  moving  picture.  Here  is 
movement  incarnate,  the  consummation  of 
man's  age-long  dreams  and  cravings.  And  man 
worships  at  their  shrine  nightly,  be  he  rich 
or  poor,  young  or  old,  savant  or  imbecile.  He 
tries  to  justify  his  infatuation  by  elaborate 
reasons  of  an  esthetic,  social  or  economic 
nature:  the  cinema  offers  a  varied  entertain- 
ment; is  always  just  around  the  corner;  costs 
only  about  a  quarter.  But  these  do  not  fully 
account  for  his  interest.  For  when  the  plot 
is  vaporish,  the  humor  inane,  the  vamping 
"old  stuff,"  he  still  attends  with  seemingly  in- 
satiable avidity.  The  cinema  as  a  selling 
medium  has  not  yet  come  into  its  own.  Never- 
theless it  will  undoubtedly  develop  into  a 
valuable  ally  for  the  seller,  because  it  em- 
bodies a  feature  to  which  man  is  passionately 
inclined — movement. 

Simulated  or  suggested  movement.  So  strong 
is  our  affinity  for  movement  that  we  respond 
to  the  mere  suggestion  of  it.  An  automobile 
which  is  pictured  as  moving  pleases  us  more 
than  one  which  appears  to  be  standing  stilL 


ATTRACTING  ATTENTION          41 

Color.  A  fourth  factor  of  growing  impor- 
tance in  selling  is  color.  Volumes  might  be 
written  upon  the  potency  of  color  in  forcing 
itself  into  the  center  of  attention. 

To  proceed  logically  we  ought  to  specify 
that  we  mean  by  color  any  visual  experience 
that  is  not  black,  white  or  some  intermediate 
degree  of  gray.  All  visual  stimuli  that  affect 
the  mental  stream  may  be  classified  as  either 
grayness  (black,  white  or  one  of  seven  hun- 
dred intermediate  shades  of  gray)  or  color. 

There  are  many  varieties  of  color — some 
psychologists  calculate  30,000.  In  all  this 
variegation  some  simplification  may  be  ef- 
fected. Much  psychological  experimentation 
has  been  directed  toward  the  discovery  of  the 
few  simple  colors  out  of  which  the  others  may 
be  compounded.  Results  point  to  four:  red, 
green,  blue  and  yellow.  With  these  elemen- 
tary colors  and  the  various  degrees  of  gray- 
ness  mentioned  above,  the  seller  must  evolve 
every  one  of  his  colored  appeals.  Clearly  he 
has  an  unlimited  field  for  his  ingenuity.  Even 
in  the  relatively  limited  realm  of  grayness 
(to  which  one  is  confined  in  daily  newspaper 
advertising)  one  may  produce  an  amazing: 


42        THE  MIND  OF  THE  BUYER 

variety.  In  background,  type  and  illustration, 
one  may  achieve,  thanks  to  the  inventions  of 
modern  printing,  a  number  of  striking  effects. 
These  varieties,  numerous  as  they  are,  con- 
stitute only  a  fraction  of  the  number  possible 
in  the  realm  of  color.  And  effective  as  are  the 
former,  they  pale  beside  the  latter. 

Several  lines  of  proof  point  to  the  overpow- 
ering attractiveness  of  color.  For  one,  we 
need  go  no  further  than  everyday  observation. 
When  the  early  settlers  of  America  wanted 
to  make  an  attractive  price  to  the  Indians  did 
they  offer  black  or  gray  beads?  We  are  not 
told  so.  Eather  do  the  chroniclers  emphasize 
"colored"  beads.  It  is  said  that  the  mail- 
order houses  have  found  colored  catalogs  to 
be  very  superior  to  those  in  black  and  white. 
More  scientific  proof  from  the  laboratories  is 
reported  in  the  voluminous  literature  upon 
the  subject. 

If  our  curiosity  leads  us  to  inquire  why 
color  attracts  the  attention  so  much  more 
easily  than  grayness,  we  may  find  a  partial 
explanation  in  the  fact  that  the  light  waves 
for  colors  travel  farther  than  do  those  for 
grayness.  Whatever  be  the  reason,  we  may 
confidently  employ  color  whenever  possible. 


ATTRACTING  ATTENTION          43 

Other  effects  of  color.  Before  concluding 
this  inadequate  treatment  of  the  subject 
we  should  point  out  that  color  may  be  useful 
not  only  in  attracting  attention.  It  may  also 
hold  attention.  Again  it  may  arouse  pleasur- 
able feelings.  The  feelings  may  come  from 
intrinsic  pleasure-giving  quality  of  the  color; 
then  may  be  transferred  to  the  object  being 
sold — an  end  evidently  sought  in  the  coloring 
of  the  containers  of  certain  brands  of  face  pow- 
der. Or  it  may  give  pleasure  by  reason  of  cer- 
tain ideas  it  arouses  within  the  buyer.  In  seek- 
ing to  use  color  we  face  a  large  group  of  ques- 
tions relating  to  the  appropriateness  of  color 
to  commodity.  We  shall  merely  recognize  the 
existence  of  these  for  the  present,  reserving 
their  detailed  consideration  for  a  later  chapter. 

Summary.  In  discussing  these  four  factors : 
intensity,  extensity,  change  and  color,  we  have 
not  exhausted  the  list  of  determinants  of  at- 
tention which  are  available  to  the  seller.  We 
have  merely  touched  upon  four  which  fit  into 
the  outline  of  this  book.  Another  in  particu- 
lar— repetition — is  so  important  that  we  shall 
use  it  as  the  basis  of  our  next  chapter. 

NOTE: — For  discussion  of  the  theoretical  aspects  of  color 
the  reader  is  referred  to  the  bibliography.  For  practical 
applications  in  the  field  of  advertising  the  reader  is  referred 
to  the  well-known  books  on  thjftt  subject 


CHAPTER  THREE 

THE    INFLUENCE    OF    REPETITION 

Repetition  wins  attention.  If  we  cannot  force 
our  commodity  into  the  center  of  attention 
by  any  of  the  devices  mentioned  in  the  pre- 
ceding chapter,  or  by  virtue  of  its  intrinsic 
merit  and  appropriateness  to  the  contents  of 
the  buyer's  mind,  we  may  have  recourse  to 
another  factor — repetition.  Mere  bald,  brutal 
repetition  goes  far  in  attracting  attention. 
This  fact  is  crystallized  in  the  old  proverb, 
"Constant  dropping  wears  away  stones." 

We  have  frequent  verification  of  this  fact 
in  everyday  life.  Often  when  we  are  asleep 
a  sound  occurs  without  awaking  us  the  first 
time,  the  second  or  the  third.  As  it  per- 
sistently recurs,  however,  it  forces  its  way 
through  the  murk  of  unconsciousness  and 
arouses  us.  And  then  as  we  look  back  we  recall 
that  the  sound  had  been  there  vaguely  (in  the 
margin  of  the  mental  stream)  for  some  time, 
but  had  required  repetition  to  be  effective. 

For  an  explanation  of  the  great  power  resi- 

44 


THE  INFLUENCE  OF  REPETITION       45 

dent  in  repetition,  we  are  driven  to  a  con- 
sideration of  the  brain  and  nervous  system. 
In  order  for  a  thing  to  affect  the  mind  it  must 
enter  the  pathways  to  the  brain.  These  path- 
ways are  somewhat  resistant  to  new  impres- 
sions, but  after  repeated  assault  they  open 
up  and  permit  access  to  the  brain. 

Another  form  of  explanation  is  the  assertion 
by  some  psychologists  that  man  is  innately 
credulous,  that  he  is  inclined  to  accept  as 
true  every  statement  he  hears.  In  the  course 
of  experience,  however,  the  adult  person  de- 
velops inhibitions,  which  make  him  sophisti- 
cated and  resistant.  To  overcome  this  re- 
sistance requires  considerable  battering.  To 
this  factor  is  due  the  effectiveness  of  many 
sales-names,  like  Uneeda.  Though  the  buyer 
may  resist  the  repetitions  of  this  name  for  a 
time,  he  eventually  comes  to  believe  that  he 
does  need  a  biscuit,  and  makes  the  purchase. 

It  is  this  coercive  power  of  repetition  which 
justifies  the  so-called  display  advertising  con- 
stituting so  great  a  part  of  modern  publicity. 
Many  a  firm  advertises  on  bill-boards,  theater 
programs,  and  the  like,  when  it  knows  it  can- 
not effect  an  immediate  sale.  But  by  keeping 
its  name  and  commodity  before  the  mind  of 
the  public,  it  hopes  to  derive  a  cumulative 


46         THE  MIND  OF  THE  BUYER 

effect  that  will  ultimately  bring  about  action. 
During  the  World  War  many  firms  which  had 
already  sold  their  entire  output  to  the  govern- 
ment continued  none  the  less  to  use  a  great 
amount  of  advertising  space,  hoping  by  repeti- 
tion to  retain  a  place  in  the  mind  of  the  public. 
And  their  course  of  action  was  justified  by 
this  psychological  principle  we  are  now  con- 
sidering. 

Repetition  influences  memory.  This  leads  us 
to  recognize  that  repetition  does  more  than 
merely  force  the  merits  of  a  commodity  upon 
the  attention  of  the  buyer.  It  imprints  the 
message  deeply  within  his  memory.  For  as 
a  rule  the  seller  desires  not  merely  to  put  his 
message  into  the  buyer's  mind,  but  to  keep  it 
there  that  it  may  instigate  purchase  time  after 
time.  Eepetition,  then,  is  a  powerful  agent 
with  which  to  overcome  the  well-known  for- 
getfulness  of  the  human  race  which  would 
naturally  tend  to  relegate  a  commodity  to  the 
margin  of  the  mental  stream. 

Distribution  of  repetitions.  We  may  vary  the 
effectiveness  of  our  repetitions  by  the  way 
in  which  we  distribute  them  over  a  period  of 
time.  By  repeating  our  message  at  certain 
intervals,  we  may  increase  the  retentiveness 
of  the  buyer's  mind. 


THE  INFLUENCE  OF  KEPETITION       47 

The  matter  may  be  explained  by  imagining 
a  case  where  we  are  announcing  a  new  article 
in  a  monthly  magazine.  Let  us  assume  that 
we  have  decided  upon  eight  insertions  for  the 
year.  How  shall  we  most  effectively  dis- 
tribute them?  A  number  of  alternatives  are 
possible;  eight  consecutive  insertions  in  the 
first  eight,  last  eight,  or  any  eight  successive 
issues;  four  in  the  first  four  issues  of  the 
year,  four  in  the  last  four,  and  so  on.  Though 
we  cannot  say  for  certain  what  is  the  best 
distribution  for  every  specific  article,  still  we 
may  make  some  profitable  guess  by  considera- 
tion of  certain  facts  proven  by  laboratory 
demonstration 

After  much  investigation  of  me*nory,  psy- 
chologists have  discovered  that  facts  once  im- 
pressed upon  the  mind  tend  to  slip  away  at 
an  uneven  rate — rapidly  at  first,  then  more 
and  more  slowly  until  the  amount  retained 
reaches  a  constant  level  and  stays  there.  The 
matter  is  graphically  represented  by  a  curve 
of  forgetting,  similar  to  that  of  Figure  6, 
where  the  greater  part  of  the  material  is  for- 
gotten almost  immediately  and  a  smaller  part 
remains  relatively  constant  (as  shown  by  the 
line  AB). 


48        THE  MIND  OF  THE  BUYER 

It  is  not  inconceivable  that  this  condition 
holds  good  for  the  memory  of  things  seen  in 
advertisements.  If  so  let  us  speculate  upon 
the  profitable  ways  of  distributing  repeated 
advertisements.  The  author  has  ventured  to 
lay  out  a  reasonable  distribution  upon  the 
curve  in  Figure  6.  Since  forgetting  takes 


B 


Ja!       F.    Mar.  Apr.  Jftay     Ju.     JL      An.    8e.      O       ST 

Fig.  6.  Showing  a  theoretically  possible  distribution  of 
eight  advertisements  among  twelve  issues  of  a  monthly 
magazine. 


place  rapidly  at  first,  let  the  early  announce- 
ments come  at  frequent  intervals.  Since  the 
rate  of  forgetting  is  slower  toward  the  end 
of  the  period  let  the  later  announcements 
come  at  less  frequent  but  regular  intervals. 
The  general  principle  is  to  adapt  the  number 
and  regularity  of  repetitions  to  the  amount 
and  constancy  of  the  material  retained.  The 
object,  in  graphic  terms,  is  to  raise  the  line 


D. 


THE  INFLUENCE  OF  KEPETITION       49 

of  retention  (AB)  as  nearly  as  possible  to  the 
level  of  complete  remembrance  (AA'). 

We  repeat  that  this  suggestion  should  not 
be  regarded  as  a  scheme  of  proven  and  uni- 
versal applicability  in  selling.  At  present  its 
validity  has  been  demonstrated  only  with  re- 
spect to  certain  kinds  of  memorizing  done  in 
the  psychological  laboratory  under  experi- 
mental conditions.  Whether  or  not  it  is 
directly  applicable  to  the  various  forms  of 
business  contact  such  as  advertising,  sales  cor- 
respondence, personal  salesmanship  and  credit 
collections,  can  be  determined  only  by  long 
experimentation.  Pending  experimental  veri- 
fication we  may  consider  the  proposed  plan  as 
a  reasonable  hypothesis. 

Unconscious  remembrance  of  a  commodity. 
While  considering  the  relation  between  repe- 
tition and  memory  we  should  note  the  condi- 
tion sometimes  called  "unconscious  memory" 
as  it  relates  to  the  sale.  Although  a  seller 
may  not  be  able,  and  of  course  he  is  not,  to 
keep  his  commodity  in  the  immediate  center 
of  the  buyer's  attention  indefinitely,  he  need 
not  despair  of  making  the  sale.  Psychologists 
have  discovered  that  an  idea  in  the  margin 
of  the  mental  stream  may  operate  with  sur- 
prising effect;  "that  the  mind  may  undergo 


50         THE  MIND  OF  THE  BUYER 

modifications,  sometimes  of  very  considerable 
importance,  without  being  itself  conscious  of 
the  process,  until  its  results  present  them- 
selves to  consciousness,  in  the  new  ideas,  or 
new  combinations  of  ideas,  which  the  process 
has  evolved." 

An  instance  related  by  Coleridge  illustrates 
this  strikingly : 

"A  case  of  this  kind  occurred  in  a  Roman  Catholic  town 
in  Germany  a  year  or  two  before  my  arrival  at  Gottingen, 
and  had  not  then  ceased  to  be  a  frequent  subject  of  con- 
versation. A  young  woman  of  four  or  five  and  twenty, 
who  could  neither  read  nor  write,  was  seized  with  a  nervous 
fever;  during  which,  according  to  the  asseverations  of  all 
the  priests  and  monks  of  the  neighborhood,  she  became 
possessed,  and,  as  it  appeared,  by  a  very  learned  devil.  She 
continued  incessantly  talking  Latin,  Greek,  and  Hebrew, 
in  very  pompous  tones  and  with  most  distinct  enunciation. 
This  possession  was  rendered  more  probable  by  the  known 
fact  that  she  was  or  had  been  a  heretic.  Voltaire  humor- 
ously advises  the  devil  to  decline  all  acquaintance  with 
medical  men" ;  and  it  would  have  been  more  to  his  reputation, 
if  he  had  taken  this  advice  in  the  present  instance.  The 
case  had  attracted  the  particular  attention  of  a  young 
physician,  and  by  his  statement  many  eminent  physiologists 
and  psychologists  visited  the  town,  and  cross-examined  the 
case  on  the  spot.  Sheets  full  of  her  ravings  were  taken 
down  from  her  own  mouth,  and  were  found  to  consist  of 
sentences,  coherent  and  intelligible  each  for  itself,  but  with 
little  or  no  connection  with  each  other.  Of  the  Hebrew,  a 
small  portion  only  could  be  traced  to  the  Bible;  the  re- 
mainder seemed  to  be  in  the  Rabbinical  dialect.  All  trick  or 
conspiracy  was  out  of  the  question.  Not  only  had  the 


THE  INFLUENCE  OF  REPETITION      51 

young  woman  ever  been  a  simple,  harmless  creature;  but  she 
was  evidently  laboring  under  a  nervous  fever.  In  the  town, 
in  which  she  had  been  resident  for  many  years  as  a  servant 
in  different  families,  no  solution  presented  itself.  The  young 
physician,  however,  determined  to  retrace  her  past  life  step 
by  step;  for  the  patient  herself  was  incapable  of  returning 
a  rational  answer.  He  at  length  succeeded  in  discovering 
the  place  where  her  parents  had  lived;  travelled  thither, 
found  them  dead,  but  an  uncle  surviving;  and  from  him 
learned,  that  the  patient  had  been  charitably  taken  by  an 
old  Protestant  pastor  at  nine  years  old,  and  had  remained 
with  him  some  years,  even  till  the  old  man's  death.  Of  this 
pastor  the  uncle  knew  nothing,  but  that  he  was  a  very  good 
man.  With  great  difficulty,  and  after  much  search,  our 
young  medical  philosopher  discovered  a  niece  of  the  pastor's, 
who  had  lived  with  him  as  his  housekeeper,  and  had  in- 
herited his  effects.  She  remembered  the  girl;  related,  that 
her  venerable  uncle  had  been  too  indulgent,  and  could  not 
bear  to  have  the  girl  scolded;  that  she  was  willing  to  have 
kept  her,  but  that,  after  her  patron's  death  the  girl  herself 
refused  to  stay.  Anxious  inquiries  were  then,  of  course, 
made  concerning  the  pastor's  habits;  and  the  solution  of  the 
phenomenon  was  soon  obtained.  For  it  appeared,  that  it  had 
been  the  old  man's  custom,  for  years,  to  walk  up  and  down 
a  passage  of  his  house  into  which  the  kitchen  door  opened, 
and  to  read  to  himself  with  a  loud  voice,  out  of  his  favorite 
books.  A  considerable  number  of  these  were  still  in  the 
niece's  possession.  She  added,  that  he  was  a  very  learned 
man  and  a  great  Hebraist.  Among  the  books  were  found 
a  collection  of  Rabbinical  writings,  together  with  several  of 
the  Greek  and  Latin  Fathers;  and  the  physician  succeeded 
in  identifying  so  many  passages  with  those  taken  down  at 
the  young  woman's  bedside,  that  no  doubt  could  remain  in 
any  rational  mind  concerning  the  true  origin  of  the  im- 
pressions made  on  her  nervous  system." 


52        THE  MIND  OF  THE  BUYER 

This  case  shows  in  extreme  form  what  may 
happen  in  lesser  degree  to  any  buyer.  An 
advertising  appeal  to  which  he  pays  little  at- 
tention at  the  time,  may,  if  repeated  often 
enough,  leave  an  impression  which  will  at  some 
later  time  influence  him  to  buy.  The  reader 
may  test  his  own  memory  in  this  respect  in  the 
following  paragraph: 

What  trade  names  first  come  into  your  mind 
in  connection  with  these  commodities:  Lini- 
ment, gum,  cough  drops,  camera,  watch, 
garter,  roofing,  paint,  talcum  powder? 

In  connection  with  each  of  these  commodi- 
ties it  is  probable  that  a  certain  name  arose 
instantly — that  one  wjiich  appears  most  fre- 
quently on  car-cards,  bill -boards,  newspapers 
and  magazines.  It  is  likely  that  if  the  reader 
were  buying  the  article  for  the  first  time,  he 
would  buy  this  certain  kind.  Though  in  his 
daily  life  he  probably  had  not  paid  much 
attention  to  these  flaring  signs,  still  he  was 
impressed  "subconsciously,"  as  it  were,  and 
when  he  came  to  buy,  he  would  act  accord- 
ingly. This  fact  is  justification  for  the  liberal 
use  of  "display"  advertising. 

Eepetition  affects  the  sale  in  other  ways 
than  through  attention  and  memory.  It  may 
influence  later  stages  of  confidence  and  de- 


THE  INFLUENCE  OF  EEPETITION      53 

cision.  We  shall  not  pause  here  to  discuss 
these,  however,  preferring  to  plumb  the  stage 
of  interest  before  passing  on  tto  the  later 
stages  of  the  sale. 


CHAPTER  FOUR 

SELLING  TO  THE  COLLECTIVE  BUYER 

Definition  of  "public."  A  good  deal  of  the 
selling  of  to-day  is  done  to  people  en  masse. 
A  car-card  strikes  not  merely  one  person  at 
a  time,  but  a  earful.  A  newspaper  advertise- 
ment falls  under  the  eyes  not  of  one  individual 
but  of  a  group.  The  persons  who  are  served 
by  any  selling  medium  constitute  a  collectivity 
— Ross  calls  it  a  "public" — which  we  may  de- 
fine as  a  group  of  dispersed  individuals  hav- 
ing similar  ideas,  feelings  and  actions,  intensi- 
fied by  the  consciousness  of  their  "collective- 


It  should  be  noted  that  a  public  is  not  a 
simple  arithmetical  summation  of  individual 
minds.  Nor  is  it  a  new  super-mind  transcend- 
ing its  components.  It  can  be  regarded  as  one 
mind  only  in  the  sense  that  the  individual 
minds  composing  it  are  almost  identical  in 
certain  respects.  Then,  because  each  member 
of  the  group  knows  that  all  the  other  mem- 
bers hold  opinions  identical  with  his,  he  feels 

54 


SELLING  TO  COLLECTIVE  BUYER        55 

more  strongly  than  he  would  without  such 
social  support.  It  is  in  such  a  sense,  then, 
that  we  speak  of  a  collective  mind  as  different 
from  the  individual  minds  composing  it. 

Newspapers  and  magazines  offer  good  in- 
ternal evidence  of  the  existence  of  the  col- 
lective mind.  The  editor  writes  in  the  plural 
number,  implying  that  he  is  spokesman  or 
chairman  of  the  group.  He  emphasizes  this 
relationship  by  using  such  prases  as,  "Editor's 
Easy  Chair,"  "The  Editor's  Drawer";  by 
heading  his  feature  sections:  "Friend  of 
the  People,"  "Column  for  Workers,"  "Our 
Boys  and  Girls";  implying  that  he  is  seated 
in  the  midst  of  his  readers,  all  of  whom  con- 
stitute a  psychical  family. 

We  may  assert,  then,  that  psychologically 
speaking,  the  readers  of  a  sales  medium  con- 
stitute an  entity,  a  public,  which  is  not  a  loose 
aggregation  of  isolated  and  individual  minds 
but  an  organic  union,  coalesced  into  one  col- 
lective mind  in  the  sense  just  mentioned. 

Each  public  unique.  There  is  further  compli- 
cation in  the  fact  that  each  public  is  unique. 
The  Chicago  American  public,  for  example, 
differs  from  that  of  the  Evening  Post.  The 
readers  of  the  Country  Gentleman  differ  from 
the  readers  of  the  Fireside  Companion. 


56        THE  MIND  OF  THE  BUYER 

We  do  not  disregard  the  fact  that  an  in- 
dividual may  belong  to  more  than  one  public. 
He  may  at  the  same  time  be  a  reader  of  the 
New  York  Times,  the  New  Republic,  the 
Congregationalist,  and  the  Commercial  and 
Financial  Chronicle;  in  which  fact  is  in- 
volved no  anomaly  or  mysterious  splitting  of 
personality.  It  means  simply  that  when  one 
reads  the  Times  he  is  entertaining  ideas  that 
are  being  shared  with  a  certain  number  of 
other  people;  and  when  he  reads  the  Con- 
gregationalist  he  is  entertaining  mental  ten- 
ants identical  with  those  in  the  minds  of 
another  group  of  people. 

Sales-  and  advertising-managers  frequently 
complain  about  the  multiplicity  of  mediums 
which  they  must  use  in  carrying  their  mes- 
sage to  the  buying  public.  They  regard  it  as 
a  misfortune.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  such  multi- 
plicity is  an  advantage;  it  simplifies  the  task 
of  the  advertiser.  There  is  not  simply  one 
infinitely  large  "buying  public,"  out  of  which 
a  seller  may  win  a  few  customers.  There  are 
many  "buying  publics."  Not  all  of  them 
care  for  every  commodity,  or  every  type  of 
a  certain  commodity.  Fortunately  they  are 
sifted  out  and  are  grouped,  with  reference 
to  tastes,  about  certain  periodicals.  The 


SELLING  TO  COLLECTIVE  BUYER         57 

seller,  by  studying  the  periodicals,  may  dis- 
cover the  publics  that  are  most  closely  inter- 
ested in  his  wares.  And  then  adapt  his  mes- 
sage to  each  public.  His  task  is  simplified 
by  the  fact  that  he  may  treat  the  members  of 
a  public  as  a  single  mind.  A  form  of  appeal 
that  would  move  one  reader  of  the  Liberator, 
for  example,  would  be  likely  to  move  most  of 
the  readers  of  the  periodical;  that  which 
would  appeal  to  one  reader  of  the  Christian 
Herald  would  have  good  chances  of  moving 
the  rest. 

In  analyzing  various  mediums,  and  select- 
ing publics  upon  which  to  inaugurate  a  selling 
campaign  the  seller  faces  a  difficult  task.  Ac- 
cording to  the  tenets  of  this  book,  he  should 
use  scientific  method. 

Measurement  of  a  public.  The  first  step  is  to 
secure  clear  and  intimate  knowledge  of  each 
public.  This  requires  investigation  covering 
a  number  of  relationships: 

1.  Geographical.  Facts  should  fte  gath- 
ered showing  where  the  members  of  the  public 
live.  For  instance,  a  manufacturer  of  skates 
would  not  wish  to  advertise  in  a  periodical 
with  a  predominantly  southern  circulation. 
Most  periodicals  serving  large  areas  furnish 
geographical  information  willingly. 


58        THE  MIND  OF  THE  BUYER 

2.  Economic.     Facts  should  be  gathered 
showing  the  property  holdings,  earnings,  etc. 
Some  periodicals  have  gathered  such  facts  for 
distribution  to  interested  space-buyers. 

3.  Sociological.    What  is  the  social  level 
of  the  public?    What  are  the  leading  occupa- 
tions represented ;  the  sports  and  relaxations? 

These  data  are  difficult  to  gather  and  often 
can  be  ascertained  only  indirectly.  The  chief 
difficulty  comes  in  expressing  them  in  numeri- 
cal terms.  One  periodical  overcame  this  in- 
geniously by  collecting  telephone  directories 
of  the  country  and  ascertaining  what  per- 
centage of  its  subscribers'  names  appeared 
therein.  This  did  not  furnish  a  complete  de- 
scription of  the  social  status  of  its  public,  but 
it  gave  an  indication. 

These  examples  indicate  that  sellers  are 
aware  of  the  differences  existing  between  pub- 
lics and  are  seeking  to  measure  them  scien- 
tifically. Successful  as  they  are,  however, 
they  have  omitted  one  important  form  of  in- 
vestigation, which  we  shall  call: 

4.  Psychological.     Some  of  the  greatest 
differences    between    publics    are    mental — 
ideas,  feelings,  motives,  and  the  like.    People 
vaguely  recognize  these  differences;  they  say 
that  the  X  Monthly  is  read  by  "high-brows" ; 


SELLING  TO  COLLECTIVE  BUYER        59 

the  Y  Monthly  by  "low-brows";  that  one 
newspaper  controls  the  "labor"  vote;  another, 
the  "wet"  element.  If  these  differences  exist 
surely  we  ought  to  be  able  to  measure  them. 
True,  the  task  will  be  difficult;  for  psychical 
things  are  obscure  and  elusive.  Furthermore, 
the  status  of  psychology  as  an  accurate  science 
is  so  recently  established  that  we  do  not  yet 
have  psychological  "yard-sticks"  with  which 
to  measure  all  kinds  of  mental  things. 

In  the  effort  to  secure  such  measurements 
the  author  undertook  an  investigation  of 
several  periodicals,  and  discovered  a  technique 
which  revealed  distinct  psychological  differ- 
ences and  permitted  their  mathematical  pre- 
sentation. Though  these  differences  are  not 
of  a  nature  to  be  markedly  significant  for  ad- 
vertising and  selling,  they  are  nevertheless 
striking  enough  to  encourage  us  to  hope  that 
we  may  ultimately  develop  methods  that  will 
be  practically  applicable  to  the  two-fold  prob- 
lem which  the  advertiser  faces :  what  medium 
to  use,  and  how  adapt  copy  to  each  one? 

By  way  of  preliminary  approach  the  follow- 
ing simple  procedure  was  planned  and  exe- 
cuted: Two  periodicals  were  chosen  which 
are  commonly  alleged  to  serve  different  pub- 
lics— the  Chicago  Evening  Post  and  the 


60        THE  MIND  OF  THE  BUYER 

Chicago  American.  From  the  editorial,  news 
and  feature  columns  of  six  parallel  issues  of 
these  two  papers,  approximately  five  thou- 
sand words  were  taken  in  consecutive  order 
— an  equal  number  from  each  newspaper — and 
tabulated  according  to  the  number  of  syllables 
they  contained. 

The  results  are  shown  in  Table  I,  in  terms 
of  the  percentage  of  words  containing  more 
than  two,  three,  etc.,  syllables.  These  figures 
show  that  the  number  of  words  over  two  sylla- 
bles long  in  the  Post  is  greater  than  that  in 
the  American  by  seventy  per  cent;  this  ratio 
holds  for  all  the  polysyllabic  words. 

TABLE  I. 

Showing  percentage  of  words  containing  more  than  2,  8, 
4  and  5  syllables  in  Chicago  Evening  Post,  Chicago  Ameri- 
can, Century  and  American  magazines. 

Over  2      Oer  3       Over  4        Over  5 


Post    

13.2 

4.6 

1.2 

0.0 

Chi.   Am  

7.7 

2.7 

.7 

0.0 

Difference 

5.5 

1.9 

.5 

Per  cent  

70 

70 

71 

13.5 

4.3 

1.0 

.9 

9.9 

2.7 

.6 

.1 

Difference    .... 

3.6 

1.6 

.4 

.1 

Per  cent  . 

36 

59 

67 

100 

SELLING  TO  COLLECTIVE  BUYER        61 

In  order  to  see  if  such  a  test  would  reveal 
similar  differences  between  two  magazines, 
the  Century  and  American  magazines  were 
likewise  examined.  Results,  as  shown  in 
Table  I,  answer  our  inquiry  positively.  They 
show  that  the  number  of  words  over  two 
syllables  in  length  in  the  Century  is  greater 
than  the  corresponding  number  in  the  Ameri- 
can magazine  by  thirty-six  per  cent;  the  num- 
ber over  three  syllables  by  fifty-nine  per  cent; 
the  number  over  four  syllables  by  sixty-seven 
per  cent;  and  the  number  over  five  syllables 
by  100  per  cent. 

In  continuation  of  the  search  for  intel- 
lectual differences,  the  length  of  sentences 
was  next  measured.  From  parallel  issues  and 
columns  of  the  same  four  periodicals  ( one 
issue  each  of  the  newspapers  and  two  each  of 
the  magazines)  a  total  of  8000  sentences  were 
taken  in  consecutive  order.  The  number  of 
words  in  each  sentence  was  computed  and 
recorded  by  tens.  That  is,  sentences  contain- 
ing from  one  to  ten  words  were  grouped  to- 
gether, those  from  ten  to  twenty,  twenty  to 
thirty,  and  so  forth.  The  percentages  are 
shown  in  Table  II.  These  results  show  a 
greater  number  of  'long"  sentences  in  the 
Post  than  in  the  American.  Considering  any- 


62        THE  MIND  OF  THE  BUYER 

TABLE  II. 

Showing  percentage  of  sentences  of  various  lengths  in 
Chicago  Evening  Post,  Chicago  American,  Century  and 
American  magazines. 

Over      Over      Over      Over 
1-10         10  20  30          40 

Post    16.9        83.1        49.0        22.3          8.5 

Chi.  Amer 23.1        76.9        43.4        20.6        10.3 

Difference —6.2          6.2          5.6          1.7      —1.8 

Century    22.8        77.2        45.4        24.4        10.6 

American    30.5        69.5        33.5        14.5          5.2 


Post    

Over 
50 

2.7 

Over 
60 

.8 

Over 
70 

.2 

Over 
80 

Over 
90 

Over 
100 

Chi.  Amer.    .  . 

2.3 

1.8 

.6 

'.3 

".2 

'.2 

Difference   ... 
Century    .... 

.4 
5.5 

2.4 

—.4 
.9 

—.3 
.4 

—.2 
.2 

—* 

American  .... 

1.8 

.7 

.3 

.1 

.1 

*.i 

Difference   ... 

3.7 

1.7 

.6 

.3 

.1 

—  .1 

thing  over  twenty  as  a  long  sentence — the 
median  length  is  between  ten  and  twenty — 
we  find  a  difference  of  5.6.  That  is,  whereas 
the  American  has  43.4  per  cent,  the  Post  has 
49.0  per  cent,  an  amount  greater  by  thirteen 
per  cent. 

The  difference  in  favor  of  the  magazines — 
again  favoring  the  Century — amounts  to 
thirty-three  per  cent. 


SELLING  TO  COLLECTIVE  BUYER        63 

The  author  does  not  reason  from  these  find- 
ings that  a  superiority  in  number  of  long 
words  and  sentences  proves  conclusively  a  cor- 
responding intellectual  superiority.  Clearly 
long  words  and  long  sentences  are  not  an 
absolute  criterion  of  erudition  or  short  ones 
of  ignorance.  Nevertheless,  we  must  admit 
that  in  the  long  run,  the  chances  favor  a 
greater  number  of  long  words  being  asso- 
ciated with  more  enlightened  people.  Meas- 
urements made  by  various  vocabulary  tests 
have  shown  that  there  are  more  words  in  the 
vocabularies  of  the  more  enlightened;  hence 
we  might  expect  a  greater  number  of  long 
words  there.  \s^ 

If  we  should  grant  the  validity  of  such  as- 
sumptions, however,  we  still  should  recog- 
nize that  the  kind  of  measures  we  have  just 
made  are  still  very  fragmentary.  The  psy- 
chological differences  between  periodicals,  and 
especially  those  differences  that  interest  the 
advertiser,  are  much  broader.  Particularly 
important  are  those  of  an  emotional  order, 
such  as  tastes,  interests,  and  the  like. 

Such  differences  might  conceivably  be 
shown  as  follows:  In  each  periodical  being 
investigated,  measure  the  amount  of  space 
devoted  to  each  kind  of  reading  matter  (ex- 


64        THE  MIND  OF  THE  BUYER 

eluding  advertisements) .  Classify  the  contents 
under  such  headings  as  Politics,  Finance,  Re- 
ligion, Literary  Criticism,  Science,  Sports, 
etc.  Then  chart  the  results  so  as  to  show  the 
proportionate  amounts  of  space  devoted  to 
material  of  each  class. 

Such  a  study  of  two  magazines  (pooled 
measures  of  four  issues  each,  same  months) 
gave  results  as  shown  in  Table  III.  By  thus 
statistically  studying  various  periodicals  the 
seller  may  prepare  a  table  (see  Table  IV) 
showing  the  amount  of  space  in  each  periodical 
devoted  to  the  subject  nearest  to  his  particu- 
lar commodity;  and  from  it  may  infer  the 
degree  of  interest  held  by  a  public  toward  each 
field.  For  surely,  in  the  long  run,  there  is  a 
close  relation  between  the  tastes  of  the  readers 
of  a  periodical  and  the  amount  of  space  de- 
voted to  various  topics. 

The  amount  of  space  devoted  to  advertise- 
ments of  various  kinds  of  commodity  might 
next  be  statistically  examined.  And  the  seller, 
using  our  historical  criterion  set  forth  on 
page  21,  might  settle  on  those  mediums  that 
devote  a  certain  per  cent  of  space  to  mate- 
rials relating  directly  to  his  commodity.  For 
example,  a  marketer  of  tennis  paraphernalia 


SELLING  TO  COLLECTIVE  BUYER        65 

TABLE  III. 

Showing  proportions  of  space  in  Review  of  Reviews  and 
World's  Work,  devoted  to  various  topics  (reading  matter). 

Review  of  World's 

Reviews  Work 

Per  cent  Per  cent 

Current  Events  20  18 

Politics   18  19 

Foreign  Comment  18  5 

Educ.,  Lit.,  and  Religion 16  8 

Industrial  Problems   12  11 

War    8  2» 

Science   6  8 

Finance    2  9 

TABLE  IV. 

Showing  proportions  of  space  devoted  to  various  topics  in 
five  hypothetical  mediums. 

Medium    >-  A  B  C  D  E 

Sport    60  50  40  30  20 

Education    20  20  25  30  30 

Science   , 15  10  15  20  20 

Fiction    5  10  10  10  15 

Religion    0  5  5  5  15 

Finance    0  5  5  5  0 

might  choose  only  those  mediums  that  devote, 
say,  twenty  per  cent  to  sports. 

We  do  not  claim  for  these  preliminary  in- 
vestigations and  plans,  however  convincing 
they  may  appear,  immediate  applicability  to 
the  problems  of  group  selling.  We  have  pre- 
sented them  chiefly  in  demonstration  of  our 
thesis  that  psychological  differences  between 
mediums  and,  may  we  say,  the  publics  which 


66        THE  MIND  OF  THE  BUYER 

they  serve,  may  be  discovered  and  measured. 
With  additional  labor  and  collaboration  be- 
tween psychological  laboratory  and  advertis- 
ing copy-room,  we  may  hope  to  develop  a  kind 
of  measurement  which  may  ultimately  be  of 
great  service  to  the  advertiser. 

Adapt  copy  to  medium.  After  having  de- 
cided what  mediums  to  use,  the  advertiser 
who  is  alive  to  the  psychological  factors 
involved  in  selling  to  group  buyers,  will 
devise  for  each  medium  a  piece  of  copy  which 
will  be  appropriate  to  the  psychological 
characteristics  of  the  public  that  reads  it.  A 
good  example  of  such  adaptation  which  was 
successfully  made  even  if  it  could  not  be  based 
upon  scientific  differentiation  between  pub- 
lics, is  reported  by  Mr.  Frank  Fehlman  who, 
as  sales  manager  of  H.  W.  Gossard  Company, 
planned  an  advertising  campaign  involving 
the  use  of  eleven  national  woman's  magazines. 
He  was  convinced  that  each  of  these  periodi- 
cals served  a  typical  group  of  women,  and 
that  his  copy  should  be  adapted  to  the  per- 
sonality of  each  of  these  types.  Lacking 
mathematical  characterization  of  these  types, 
he  sought  the  editor  of  each  magazine  and 
asked  for  a  description  of  the  typical  reader, 
as  he,  the  editor,  visualized  her.  The  adver- 


SELLING  TO  COLLECTIVE  BUYER        67 

tising  copy  writer  then  composed  a  different 
piece  of  copy  for  the  top  half  of  each  adver- 
tisement, tied  up  with  the  editorial  policy 
of  the  magazine. 

For  example,  the  policy  of  Good  House- 
keeping had  been  closely  knit  around  Dr. 
Wiley  and  food  tests.  The  magazine  guaran- 
teed its  advertisements;  hence  the  idea  of 
guarantee  was  well  grounded  in  the  mind  of 
the  reader  of  the  magazine.  Accordingly  the 
headline  over  a  picture  of  a  galaxy  of  moving- 
picture  beauties  garbed  in  the  Gossard 
product  was,  "Tested  and  Proved  by  the 
Greatest  Stars  in  the  Film  World." 

Woman's  Home  Companion  had  been  con- 
ducting a  campaign  for  better  films.  In  order 
to  fit  in  with  this  policy  the  following  headline 
was  employed  with  the  picture:  "Better 
Films — Beautiful  Stars — Gossard  Corsets." 

"Then  we  wrapped  our  full  page  in  Vogue 
in  the  smart,  aristocratic,  haute  aire  atmos- 
phere of  the  lady  of  the  limousine  who  pays 
twenty -five  dollars  for  a  corset  with  the  non- 
chalance with  which  you  or  I  spend  a  cent 
for  a  newspaper.  We  knew  that  the  headline 
of  this  advertisement  in  Vogue — "The  Regal 
Beauty  of  Dora  Rogers" — would  have  the 
right  effect  on  the  haughty,  double-chinned 


68        THE  MIND  OF  THE  BUYER 

society  dowager  whose  corsets  contribute  so 
vitally  toward  the  regality  of  her  figure  as  she 
sweeps  from  her  Kolls-Royce  into  the  entrance 
of  Sherry's." 

After  citing  other  adaptations  of  copy  to 
medium  this  writer  concludes :  "We  are  now 
so  thoroughly  convinced  of  the  necessity  of 
linking  up  copy  with  the  editorial  tone  of  the 
magazine  that  it  is  one  of  our  strongest  adver- 
tising policies." 

If  such  profitable  adaptations  can  be  ef- 
fected without  the  use  of  scientific  measure- 
ments, surely  after  we  have  refined  a  tech- 
nique similar  to  that  suggested  in  this  chapter, 
we  shall  be  able  to  make  much  more  effective 
adaptations  of  sales  appeals  to  the  publics 
we  are  trying  to  reach. 

Fashion  a  phenomenon  of  the  collective 
mind.  One  characteristic  of  group  minds  is 
the  phenomenon  which  we  call  fashion.  It 
may  be  defined  as  "a  series  of  recurring 
changes  in  the  choices  of  a  group  of  people 
which,  though  they  may  be  accompanied  by 
utility,  are  not  determined  by  it."  Fashion 
is  one  of  the  most  important  psychical  factors 
affecting  modern  selling.  Every  one  recog- 
nizes its  force,  but  few  lay  down  any  prin- 


SELLING  TO  COLLECTIVE  BUYER         69 

ciples  by  which  a  seller  may  turn  it  to  his 
account. 

We  shall  be  able  to  secure  some  light  upon 
this  question  if  we  analyze  fashion,  showing 
what  it  is  and  how  it  operates.  We  shall  do 
this  by  itemizing  several  of  the  most  promi- 
nent characteristics  concerned  in  its  birth 
and  development. 

1.  The  first  is  universality.    It  may  attach 
itself  to  any  kind  of  human  conduct — dress, 
speech,     dancing,     gait,     hair-dressing.       A 
furtker  form  of  its  universality  is  that  it  is 
prevalent  throughout  the  human  race.     On 
Fifth  avenue  and  on  the  palm-fringed  beach 
of  a  South  Sea  island  it  flourishes  with  equal 
luxuriance  and  exuberance. 

2.  It  is  not  determined  by  usefulness;  in- 
deed, many  fashions  thrive  because  they  are 
conspicuously  not  useful.     For  example,  one 
thing  that  makes  French  heels  fashionable 
is  that  they  hinder  a  woman  from  working 
very  actively,  and  thus  testify  to  the  world 
that  she  is  a  woman  of  leisure. 

3.  A  fashion  at  its  inception  must  have 
some  element  of  newness. 

4.  It  originally  represents  the  desire  of 
some  individual   to   mark   himself   off   from 
others.     If  a  belle  on  Riverside  Drive  or  in 


70 


THE  MIND  OF  THE  BUYER 


Zululand  secures  a  set  of  green  beads  when 
her  companions  have  none,  she  thereby  marks 
herself  as  different  from  the  rest. 

5.  Dae  to  the  next  component  of  fashion — 
imitation — the  other  young  women  in  her  set 
secure  some  green  beads. 

6.  In   this   imitation,   we  should   observe 
the  higher  individual  is  imitated  by  the  lower. 


3        ( 

7       J 
FIG. 

3       J 

7. 

?       J 

7.  As  a  result  of  this  imitative  action,  the 
individual  who  was  first  made  conspicuous  by 
the  new  apparel  is  no  longer  distinguished. 
The  situation  may  be  graphically  represented 
by  Figure  7. 

In  the  social  group  A  B  C  D  E  F  G,  indi- 
vidual D  adopted  the  novel  practice  of 
wearing  green  beads  thus  raising  herself  above 
the  level  of  her  companions.  When  they,  how- 
ever, followed  her  example  and  put  on  green 
beads,  they  raised  themselves  to  her  level. 


SELLING  TO  COLLECTIVE  BUYER        71 

Finding  herself  again  an  undistinguished 
member  of  the  group,  D  adopted  some  new 
ornament  (perhaps  bows  on  her  shoes)  which 
raised  her  again  above  the  common  level. 
Unfortunately,  her  inferiors  are  bound  to  copy 
this  fashion;  and  so  she  will  be  obliged  to 
search  for  another  distinguishing  mark. 

8.  After  many  such  changes  it  becomes 
difficult  to  devise  a  new  distinguishing  mark; 
one  is  forced  to  revert  to  a  fashion  which  hacf 
its  vogue  a  long  time  before  and  died  out. 
Having  been  quiescent  for  a  long  time,  some- 
times a  generation,  it  possesses  the  element  of 
novelty  in  the  eyes  of  the  new  generation  and 
answers  the  purpose  of  a  new  object  of 
fashion.  In  other  words,  fashions  move  in 
cycles.  Shoes  range  from  wide  to  narrow 
toes,  high  to  low  heels.  Women's  skirts  oscil- 
late between  extremes  of  length  and  shortness, 
narrowness  and  width. 

Is  there  some  favored  length  of  time  for 
fashion  cycles?  Various  answers  have  been 
given.  But  speculation  is  futile.  The  true 
facts  can  be  secured  only  by  statistical  investi- 
gation. 

Such,  in  epitome,  is  the  interesting  story 
of  fashion  in  general.  The  reader  may  apply 


72        THE  MIND  OF  THE  BUYER 

this  schema  to  any  fashion  and  may  easily 
see  its  commercial  implications. 

Relation  between  fashion  and  selling.  Ob- 
viously fashion  may  stimulate  selling  by 
creating  and  furthering  new  demands.  It 
may  retard  selling  by  reducing  the  demand 
for  an  article  which  has  ceased  to  be  fashion- 
able. For  these  and  other  reasons  the  seller 
should  study  fashion,  statistically,  if  possible. 
By  means  of  the  knowledge  thus  obtained  he 
may  estimate  what  to  buy,  how  much  of  a 
stock  to  lay  in,  when  to  plan  for  another 
fashion,  and  how  long  it  may  run. 

In  introducing  a  new  article  to  the  public, 
the  seller  may  succeed  vastly  better  if  he 
studies  the  psychology  of  fashion  and  acts 
accordingly.  Thus  he  may  utilize  law  4  by 
showing  the  buyer  how  the  purchase  of  this 
commodity  will  give  him  individuality  and 
ascendancy  over  the  mass.  In  observance  of 
laws  5  and  6,  the  seller  would  seek  as  his 
first  buyer  the  acknowledged  leader  of  the 
social  group.  Then  he  may  inform  the  lesser 
buyer  that  he  may  distinguish  himself  by 
doing  as  did  the  most  distinguished  member 
of  the  group. 

Summary.  In  this  chapter  we  have  shown 
that  the  buyer  is  not  always  appealed  to  in- 


SELLING  TO  COLLECTIVE  BUYER        73 

dividually;  that  he  is  many  times  to  be  ap- 
proached in  company  with  others.  That  this 
gives  rise  to  a  group  consciousness  or  col- 
lective mind,  with  characteristics  peculiar  to 
itself.  We  mentioned  several  of  these  char- 
acteristics, expanding  with  some  particular- 
ity upon  fashion  and  showing  its  relation  to 
the  business  of  selling. 

We  found  that  the  people  served  by  one 
sales  medium  constitute  a  collective  mind  that 
is  different  from  the  collective  mind  belonging 
to  another  sales  medium.  And  that  a  seller 
who  would  sell  intelligently  should  investi- 
gate each  collective  mind  from  several  points 
of  view:  geographical,  economic,  sociological 
and  psychological.  (By  sample  investiga- 
tions of  the  latter  class  we  demonstrated  the 
existence  of  marked  differences,  and  stated 
them  in  quantitative  terms.)  After  making 
such  scientific  investigations  the  seller  may 
make  intelligent  adaptation  of  his  appeal  to 
the  various  sales-mediums  employed. 


STAGE  TWO— INTEREST 


CHAPTER  FIVE 

HOW  TO  AROUSE  INTEREST  IN  A  COMMODITY 

Attention  may  merge  into  interest.  After  the 
buyer  has  given  his  initial  momentary  atten- 
tion to  a  commodity,  he  does  one  of  two 
things:  either  he  turns  away,  in  which  case 
he  for  the  time  being  ceases  to  be  a  prospective 
buyer;  or  he  continues  to  pay  attention  and 
remains  a  prospective  buyer.  In  the  latter 
case  his  attention  becomes  something  more 
than  the  mere  intellectual  awareness  consid- 
ered as  the  first  stage  of  the  sale.  It  becomes 
a  deeper,  warmer,  more  rapt  kind  of  attention, 
so  different  as  to  constitute  a  new  stage  in  the 
stream  of  thought  and  to  deserve  a  new  name. 
We  shall  denominate  it  Interest.  In  this 
chapter  we  shall  discuss  the  nature  of  interest 
in  general ;  and  in  the  two  following  chapters, 
two  of  the  devices  that  maintain  it  at  high 
peak — good  feeling  and  imagination. 

Definitions.  In  describing  interest  we  may 
properly  start  with  a  definition.  Several  have 
been  formulated :  "Interest  is  the  recognition 
77 


78        THE  MIND  OF  THE  BUYER 

of  a  thing  which  has  been  vitally  connected 
with  experience  before — a  thing  recognized 
as  old."  "Impulse  to  attend."  "Interest 
naturally  arouses  tendencies  to  act."  "The 
root  idea  of  the  term  seems  to  be  that  of  being 
engaged,  engrossed,  or  entirely  taken  up  with 
some  activity  because  of  its  recognized  worth."* 
"Interest  marks  the  annihilation  of  the  dis- 
tance between  the  person  and  the  materials 
and  results  of  his  action;  it  is  a  sign  of  their 
organic  union." 

Watch  a  boy  of  fourteen  as  he  bends  over 
a  mystery  tale.  Blind  and  deaf  to  sights  and 
sounds  around  him  he  throws  his  entire  being 
into  the  page.  We  say  he  is  interested.  To 
achieve  such  effects  upon  the  reading  public 
would  fulfill  the  dearest  wish  of  the  advertis- 
ing copy-writer.  For,  according  to  our  last 
definition  of  interest,  when  the  reader  of  an 
advertisement  is  interested  in  the  description 
of  a  thing  he  identifies  himself  with  it;  he 
makes  an  imaginary  purchase ;  if  it  turns  out 
to  be  agreeable  he  tries  to  materialize  it  by 
actually  purchasing  the  commodity. 

First  law  of  interest.  How  to  create  this  de- 
gree of  interest  within  the  mind  of  the  buyer 
is  the  question  before  us.  The  answer  may 
be  found  in  two  psychological  laws.  The  first 


HOW  TO  AEOUSE  INTEREST       79 

In  order  to  create  interest  in  a  thing, 
information  about  it.  We  may  see  the 
force  of  this  law  if  we  examine  some  interest 
in  the  course  of  development.  Take  the  in- 
terest of  a  typical  young  girl  in  a  certain 
nu>vie  actor.  She  knows  the  name  of  every 
picture  in  which  he  has  appeared;  his  age; 
the  color  of  his  hair,  eyes  and  automobile. 
She  cherishes  these  facts  and  fondles  them  as 
a  precious  rosary  with  which  she  pays  her  de- 
votions. They  constitute  the  psychological 
basis  of  her  interest.  The  astute  press-agent 
knows  this,  and  at  well-timed  intervals,  he 
lets  slip  through  the  press  a  few  items  and 
anecdotes  about  the  star  which  fan  the  interest 
of  the  fair  devotee  to  a  still  whiter  heat. 

Sellers  in  general  may  profitably  follow 
this  example,  disseminating  information  about 
their  wares.  Progressive  advertisers  have  been 
making  much  use  of  this  device  within  the  past 
few  years.  Probably  they  have  not  con- 
sciously applied  our  rule ;  but  in  studying  the 
effects  of  the  various  elements  in  their  ad- 
vertisements, they  have  discovered  that  in- 
formation-giving advertisements  bring  re- 
sults; and  so  they  have  increased  the  use  of 
them.  Of  1000  advertisements  in  Collier's 
Weekly  for  1902  only  220,  or  twenty-two  per 


80        THE  MIND  OF  THE  BUYER 

cent  were  "informational."  In  the  same 
periodical  for  1919  the  per  cent  had  increased 
to  seventy-four.  If  we  consider  the  doctrine 
of  "survival  of  the  fittest"  applicable  in  the 
realm  of  advertising,  we  may  reasonably  infer 
that  this  feature  has  proved  of  considerable 
selling  value. 

In  giving  information  about  a  commodity 
it  is  desirable  to  observe  an  important  corol- 
lary to  our  first  law :  State  the  new  in  terms 
of  the  old.  For  example,  in  giving  informa- 
tion about  a  new  kind  of  filing  cabinet  which 
will  fit  into  the  drawer  of  an  executive's  desk, 
describe  some  difficulty  which  every  executive 
faces;  such  as  the  necessity  of  interrupting 
an  important  conference  to  call  a  clerk  and 
wait  for  her  to  fetch  a  record  card.  This 
situation  is  already  familiar  to  the  buyer, 
being  a  part  of  his  daily  experience.  It  is 
for  this  reason  a  valuable  starting  point  from 
which  the  seller  may  proceed  to  impart  in- 
formation about  his  new  product. 

Classification.  In  thus  utilizing  old  interests 
the  seller  has  a  wide  variety  to  select  from. 
They  may  be  classified  as  innate  and  acquired. 
Those  in  the  first  group  are  born  within  the 
race.  As  shown  in  Chapter  II,  man  naturally 


HOW  TO  AROUSE  INTEREST       81 

takes  an  interest  in  moving  things,  loud  noises, 
bright  lights,  strong  odors  and  tastes. 

Let  us  not,  at  this  point,  fall  into  an  error 
which  often  traps  the  unwary ;  namely,  to  call 
interests  innate  which  are  really  acquired. 
It  is  incorrect,  for  example,  to  call  interest 
in  tomatoes,  the  Republican  party,  or  chess, 
innate.  These  interests  are  acquired  by  ex- 
perience. We  may  roughly  discriminate  be- 
tween the  two  groups  by  saying  that  man  is 
innately  interested  in  simple  elements  or 
qualities  of  objects:  such  as  the  brightness  of 
lamps  and  the  loudness  of  bass  drums;  but 
that  he  acquires  interest  in  objects;  such  as 
old  Roman  lamps,  and  orchestral  music. 

Having  cleared  the  ground  of  logical  mis- 
conceptions, we  may  develop  our  corollary 
further.  James  advises  the  following  pro- 
cedure: "Begin  with  the  lines  of  his  native 
interests,  and  offer  him  objects  that  have 
some  immediate  connection  with  these."  To 
apply  this  in  advertising  a  waterproof  shoe, 
one  might  arrange  a  display  shoe  so  that 
it  will  continually  step  in  and  out  of  a  pan 
of  water.  This  arouses  an  innate  interest  in 
moving  things.  Having  aroused  interest  in 
one  attribute  of  the  shoe — movement — we 
may  transfer  the  interest  to  the  attribute 


82        THE  MIND  OF  THE  BUYER 

which  we  are  using  as  our  chief  selling  point 
— waterproofness.  This  is  a  difficult  task. 
In  bringing  it  about  James  advises:  "Next, 
step  by  step,  connect  with  these  first  objects 
and  experiences,  the  later  objects  and  ideas 
which  you  wish  to  instill.  Associate  the  new 
with  the  old  in  some  natural  and  telling  way, 
so  that  the  interest,  being  shed  from  point  to 
point,  finally  suffuses  the  entire  system  of  ob- 
jects of  thought."  Here  the  advertiser  may 
begin  to  appeal  to  the  acquired  interests  by 
showing  how  these  waterproof  shoes  will  save 
money  and  trouble  by  eliminating  the  neces- 
sity of  wearing  rubbers.  Many  advertisers  at 
this  step  fail  to  make  a  smooth  transition  be- 
tween the  old  idea  and  the  new  one.  They 
fail  to  show  how  Lincoln's  birthday,  which 
they  may  be  referring  to  as  a  matter  of  con- 
temporary interest,  is  related  to  their  com- 
modity. This  is  an  important  matter  and 
deserves  more  than  passing  attention.  But 
we  must  proceed  with  the  task  in  hand. 

We  might  group  the  acquired  interests,  upon 
which  a  seller  may  play,  into  two  classes: 
permanent  and  temporary.  Those  in  the  first 
class  have  enough  vitality  to  persist  through- 
out the  greater  part  of  a  lifetime.  Such  are 
preferences  for  sugar  (or  salt)  on  tomatoes. 


HOW  TO  AEOUSE  INTEREST       83 

a  particular  political  party  or  fraternal  order. 
Those  belonging  to  the  second  group  are  of 
less  importance  to  the  individual :  interest  in 
a  passing  murder  trial,  in  the  first  aeroplane 
trip  across  the  Atlantic,  in  a  pending  presi- 
dential election. 

In  choosing  informational  facts  with  which 
to  evoke  interest  in  a  given  commodity,  we 
might  group  them  into  four  classes:  (1) 
sources  of  the  raw  materials,  (2)  processes 
of  manufacture,  (3)  facts  about  the  men  who 
compose  the  firm,  (4)  uses  for  the  commodity. 
By  thus  classifying  the  thousand  advertise- 
ments mentioned  above  we  may  discover  some- 
thing about  the  relative  merit  of  these  classes 
of  facts  in  advertising  practice.  The  results 
of  such  arrangement  are  presented  in  per- 
centage form  in  Table  V. 

TABLE  V. 

Showing  the  percentages  of  informational  advertisements 
in  Cottier's  Weekly  for  1902  and  1919,  grouped  according 
to  the  kinds  of  information  given  regarding  the  commodity. 

Processes    Personnel    Sources 
of  of  the      of  Raw 

Uses    Manufacture    Firm    Materials      Total 

1902 57  22  11  10  100 

1919  66  14  18  02  100 

These  figures  show  that  the  items  featured 
most  frequently  are  the  uses  to  which  the 


84        THE  MIND  OF  THE  BUYER 

commodity  may  be  put.  This  is  true  of  both 
the  1902  and  the  1919  advertisements.  In- 
deed, in  the  later  period,  the  frequency  is 
greater.  Perhaps  the  explanation  is  that  by 
describing  uses  the  advertiser  can  get  nearer 
to  the  heart  of  his  reader.  He  can  talk  about 
the  daily  needs  of  the  reader  in  terms  already 
familiar,  and  can  show  the  related  uses  for 
the  commodity,  thus  exemplifying  the  true 
course  of  interest  as  we  outlined  it  in  earlier 
paragraphs.  Perhaps,  too,  the  effectiveness  of 
use  may  be  attributed  to  the  human  liking 
for  activity.  One's  reaction  toward  an  object 
seems  to  be  innately  in  terms  of  "what  is  to 
be  done  with  it?" 

Facts  about  processes  of  manufacture,, 
though  formerly  second  in  frequency,  seem  to 
have  lost  some  of  their  popularity,  likewise 
facts  regarding  the  sources  of  raw  materials. 
The  value  of  facts  about  the  personnel  of  the 
firm,  however,  seems  to  be  increasing;  the 
percentage  having  grown  from  11  to  18  dur 
ing  the  eighteen  years  covered  by  the  investi- 
gation. This  may  be  indicative  of  the  growing 
interest  which  society  is  taking  in  big  business, 
and  particularly  in  the  personal  aspect.  It 
requires  to  know  income  returns,  amounts 
of  excess  profits;  and  naturally  desires  to 


HOW  TO  AROUSE  INTEREST       85 

know  about  the  character  and  ability  of  the 
men  at  the  head  of  the  affairs.  Besides,  people 
like  to  read  about  successful  men  in  order  to 
discover  the  secret  of  their  success. 

Howsoever  we  explain  these  qualities,  we 
know  for  certain  that  during  the  great  ex- 
pansion of  advertising  of  the  past  twenty 
years,  the  use  of  information-giving  adver- 
tisements has  increased  in  the  ratio  from 
twenty-two  to  seventy-four  in  a  hundred.  And 
that  among  informational  facts,  certain 
groups  have  been  numerically  favored  over 
others.  The  enterprising  copy-writer  who  de- 
sires to  profit  by  the  experience  of  the  past 
may  well  adopt  the  practice  of  arousing  inter- 
est by  means  of  informational  copy,  and  may 
well  consider  seriously  the  results  of  our 
investigation  showing  the  relative  value  of 
different  classes  of  interest-evoking  facts. 

Second  law  of  interest.  Leaving  now  the  un- 
limited possibilities  of  variation  in  the  spread- 
ing of  information  about  a  commodity,  let  us 
pass  on  to  another  phase.  For  there  is  another 
psychological  law  of  interest:  In  order  to 
create  interest  in  a  thing,  arouse  activity  to- 
ward it.  We  may  see  this  law  exemplified 
in  the  methods  pursued  by  various  organiza- 


86        THE  MIND  OF  THE  BUYER 

tions  in  enlisting  the  interest  of  certain 
persons.  When  a  hospital  desires  to  secure 
a  wealthy  patroness  it  places  her  on  the  Board 
of  Directors;  then  on  some  important  com- 
mittee. As  she  busies  herself  with  the  affairs 
of  the  institution  she  becomes  interested  in  it, 
and  soon  makes  the  hoped-for  financial  con- 
tributions. 

Opportunities  for  the  utilization  of  this 
prescription  are  numerous  enough  in  direct 
personal  selling.  The  salesman  may  induce 
the  buyer  to  feel  the  texture  of  the  silk,  take 
a  ride  in  the  automobile,  try  the  piano.  A 
pertinent  example  is  given  in  this  description 
of  the  method  employed  by  salesmen  sent  out 
to  introduce  a  new  cooking  product  to  the 
housewives  of  the  country : 

"The  canvasser  knocked  at  the  door  of  the  house.  When 
the  door  was  opened,  the  canvasser  immediately  removed 
his  hat,  placing  it  on  the  floor  of  the  piazza  or  on  the  rail 
if  one  were  handy.  Using  a  set  phrase  such  as:  'Madam,  I 
am  here  to  show  you  Crisco,  the  new  shortening,*  he  offered 
her  with  his  two  hands  a  pail  of  Crisco.  The  instant  that 
the  woman  took  the  pail  from  the  canvasser's  hands  he 
drew  a  pencil  from  his  pocket  and  held  it  in  his  right  hand, 
at  the  same  time  he  drew  from  another  pocket  a  coupon 
which  he  held  in  his  left  hand.  This  was  so  that  the  woman 
could  not  hand  back  the  pail  to  the  canvasser.  The  most 
she  could  do  was  to  drop  or  place  it  on  the  floor.  Then 
the  conversation  started.'1 


HOW  TO  AROUSE  INTEREST       87 

Opportunities  to  arouse  activity  on  the  part 
of  the  buyer  are  not  quite  so  numerous  in  ad- 
vertising. There  are  some,  however,  which 
when  exploited,  serve  the  purpose  admirably. 
Here  belong  coupons  to  be  torn  off,  requests 
for  names  of  friends  and  dealers,  offers  of 
prizes  for  the  solution  of  puzzles,  reproduction 
of  cartoons,  composition  of  limericks.  All 
these  devices,  which  have  established  their 
utility  by  their  persistence  in  advertising,  de- 
rive their  psychological  justification  from 
their  ability  to  arouse  interest  through  ac- 
tivity. 

Summary.  We  have  now  answered  the  ques- 
tion posited  at  the  beginning  of  this  chapter. 
We  have  made  a  psychological  analysis  of 
interest;  have  described  the  kinds  of  interest 
common  to  the  human  species;  and  have 
formulated  two  laws  for  the  development  of 
interest. 

We  have  seen  that  these  laws  are  not  merely 
theoretical  formulations.  By  an  investigation 
of  advertising  practice  we  found  their  prac- 
tical verification  in  the  conscious  or  uncon- 
scious use  of  them  by  successful  sellers.  By 
a  more  minute  analysis  of  the  specific  stimu- 
lants to  interest  which  have  been  employed, 


88         THE  MIND  OF  THE  BUYER 

we  have  discovered  which  ones  are  likely  to 
have  the  strongest  appeal. 

It  should  be  remarked  that  though  we  may 
seem  to  have  treated  interest  as  a  distinct 
stage  of  the  sale,  we  do  not  thereby  imply  that 
it  is  entirely  separate  from  the  other  stages. 
As  a  matter  of  fact,  once  it  is  aroused,  it  per- 
sists throughout  the  sale,  in  desire,  confidence, 
decision  and  satisfaction. 

We  shall  now  proceed  to  discuss  two  com- 
ponents of  the  mental  stream — good  feeling 
and  imagination — which  are  important  stimu- 
lants to  the  growth  of  interest. 


CHAPTER  SIX 

GOOD  FEELING  A  REQUISITE 

Two-fold  aspect  of  feeling.  We  shall  lay  it 
down  as  a  fundamental  rule  that  a  perfect 
sale  requires  good  feeling  in  the  mind  of  the 
buyer — at  the  start,  throughout  the  intermedi- 
ate stages,  and  at  the  end.  By  feeling  we 
mean  pleasantness  and  unpleasantness.  Prae- 
ticafly  every  state  of  mind  is  accompanied 
by  some  feeling.  Karely  does  man  take  a 
purely  cold-blooded,  disinterested  attitude  to- 
ward the  world.  To  the  feelings  of  pleasant- 
ness and  unpleasantness  in  their  complicated 
settings  are  attached  various  names:  sorrow, 
joy,  embarrassment,  reverence,  etc.,  expres- 
sive of  a  thousand  shades  of  subtleties  of 
meaning.  In  spite  of  the  many  varieties,  how- 
ever, feelings  may  be  reduced  to  two  kinds — 
pleasant  and  unpleasant. 

It  is  our  contention  in  this  chapter  that 
pleasant  feelings  must  attend  every  sale.  We 
must  insist  upon  this  condition,  allowing  no 
exception.  We  are  now  emphasizing  this  idea 


90        THE  MIND  OF  THE  BUYER 

in  connection  with  the  stage  of  interest,  and 
we  shall  repeat  it  in  discussing  the  later 
stages,  especially  that  of  satisfaction,  where 
we  shall  show  that  the  sale  is  not  really  con- 
summated until  the  buyer  is  in  a  completely 
satisfied  state  of  mind.  Meanwhile,  in  order 
to  understand  the  reason  for  good  feeling  at 
the  various  stages  of  the  sale,  «ve  shall  con- 
sider it  as  a  general  psychological  factor, 
endeavoring  to  show  what  it  is,  and  how  it 
affects  human  conduct. 

Pleasantness  reflected  in  bodily  changes.  In 
endeavoring  to  show  how  good  feeling  facili- 
tates the  act  of  purchase  we  must  recognize 
the  fact  that  states  of  feeling  are  character- 
istically accompanied  by  wide-spread  bodily 
activities.  These  consist  of  many  varieties, 
often  called  "expressions."  Some  are  con- 
nected with  the  gross  muscles  of  the  trunk, 
arms,  legs  and  neck.  Others  with  the  finer 
muscles  in  the  face  and  eyes.  Still  others 
with  internal  organs  hidden  from  the  naked 
eye. 

Some  psychologists  assert  that  such  of  these 
movements  as  accompany  pleasant  feelings 
represent  a  heightening  of  the  bodily  powers; 
and  that  those  which  accompany  unpleasant 
feelings  represent  a  depressing  effect.  For 


GOOD  FEELING  A  REQUISITE       91 

example,  a  scientist  who  investigated  the 
effect  of  various  stimuli  upon  the  extent  of 
the  knee-jerk,  discovered  that  pleasant  music 
increased  the  extent  of  the  movement.  We 
cannot  accept  unqualifiedly  this  thoroughgo- 
ing relationship  between  pleasantness  and 
heightening  of  bodily  powers,  because  of  cer- 
tain contradictory  evidence  which  we  shall 
not  enter  into  here.  Nevertheless  the  theory 
offers  interesting  possibilities  for  speculation 
concerning  the  power  of  pleasant  feelings  over 
the  actions  of  the  buyer. 

Another  view  is  somewhat  more  credible, 
namely,  that  pleasant  feelings  with  respect  to 
an  object  are  accompanied  by  movements  to- 
ward, while  unpleasant  feelings  are  accom- 
panied by  movements  away  from,  the  object. 
Something  of  this  sort  seems  to  happen  when 
we  make  experiments  upon  a  simple  organism 
like  the  amoeba.  When  we  place  one  kind 
of  object  in  his  neighborhood  he  moves  toward 
it ;  when  we  place  there  another  kind  of  object, 
he  quickly  moves  away.  An  infant  reacts 
similarly.  To  a  shiny  ball  dangling  before  his 
eyes  he  reaches  forth  his  hands;  from  a  sharp 
pin  he  draws  away. 

It  is  probable  that  an  adult  reacts  with 
similar  positive  and  negative  movements  ac- 


92        THE  MIND  OF  THE  BUYER 

cording  as  he  is  confronted  with  an  object 
which  is  pleasing  or  displeasing.  Sometimes 
his  movements  of  expansion  and  retraction 
are  easily  discernible.  At  other  times  they 
are  minute,  and  perceptible  only  by  means  of 
delicate  measuring  instruments.  For  though 
in  the  course  of  our  civilized  existence  we 
learn  to  conceal  our  outward  manifestations 
of  feeling,  we  rarely  succeed  in  repressing  the 
inner  ones.  They  occur  without  the  interposi- 
tion of  the  will.  And  they  form  a  large  ma- 
jority of  the  signs  of  unpleasantness.  They 
are,  as  we  say,  instinctive — to  be  more  thor- 
oughly discussed  in  Chapter  XL  Though  we 
shall  not  enumerate  them  here,  we  shall  in- 
dicate their  astonishing  multiplicity  by  men- 
tioning a  few.  It  is  well  known  that  the 
sweat  glands  and  saliva  glands  are  affected 
by  strong  feeling.  Other  glands  not  so  well 
known  are  also  aroused,  such  as  the  thyroid, 
pituitary,  pineal,  adrenal.  Changes  also 
occur  in  the  circulatory  system;  the  heart 
beats  change  in  rate ;  and  the  arteries  expand 
as  in  blushing,  or  contract  as  in  paling.  Elec- 
tric disturbances  occur — man  being  a  sort 
of  electric  battery.  Chemical  reactions  occur. 
Is  this  not  proved  by  the  fact  that  the  hair 
may  turn  white  in  a  single  night? 


GOOD  FEELING  A  KEQUISITE       93 

Sometimes  the  bodily  functions  are  seri- 
ously disturbed.  A  patient  reported  by  one 
physician  had  passed  a  sleepless  night  of 
worry.  In  the  morning  the  contents  of  her 
stomach  were  removed  with  a  stomach  pump. 
It  was  discovered  that  her  dinner  of  the 
evening  before  had  been  untouched  by  the 
digestive  agencies.  If  we  conceive  of  the 
stomach  and  allied  organs  as  composed  of  a 
mass  of  cells  expanding  with  pleasantness  and 
contracting  with  unpleasantness,  we  may  con- 
clude that  the  cells  charged  with  the  work  of 
digestion  retracted  under  stress  of  the  un- 
pleasant feelings,  and  refused  to  do  their  duty, 

Whether  or  not  this  expansion-contraction 
theory  is  literally  applicable  to  all  bodily 
movements,  it  is  a  convenient  help  in  picturing 
the  bodily  accompaniments  of  feeling.  One 
effect  quite  certainly  accompanies  pleasant 
feeling,  namely,  a  widespread  bodily  reaction 
within  the  buyer.  This  means  the  liberation 
of  a  vast  amount  of  potential  nervous  energy, 
which  the  seller  may,  by  the  devices  presented 
in  other  chapters,  direct  toward  the  production 
of  the  act  of  purchase. 

Humor  in  the  sale.  In  the  attempt  to  invoke 
pleasant  feelings  some  salesmen  follow  the 
rule  of  starting  out  with  a  funny  story. 


94        THE  MIND  OF  THE  BUYER 

Interpreting  good  feeling  as  hilarious  humor 
they  conceive  their  role  to  be  that  of  a  court 
jester;  to  manufacture  a  constant  flow  of  wit 
with  which  to  keep  the  spirits  of  the  buyer 
at  a  high  pitch. 

Some  advertisers  act  on  the  same  principle, 
straining  every  nerve  to  evolve  a  humorous 
story,  picture  or  limerick.  Whether  this  de- 
vice is  successful  or  not  is  seriously  open  to 
question.  If  we  seek  the  testimony  to  be 
found  in  the  practices  of  the  majority  of  ad- 
vertisers we  find  scant  use  of  humor  as  a 
stimulant  to  good  feeling.  In  an  investigation 
of  the  advertisements  appearing  in  Collier's 
Weekly  and  Harper's  Weekly  between  1902 
and  1919,  the  author  found  that  the  number 
of  humorous  advertisements  never  exceeded 
seven  in  100.  If  we  place  any  reliance  upon 
the  historical  method  as  an  index  of  successful 
selling  practices,  we  may  conclude  that  few 
advertisers  have  found  humor  a  valuable 
selling  aid. 

Perhaps  this  apparent  lack  of  success  is  not 
due  to  any  intrinsic  unprofitableness  in 
humor  or  to  any  violent  distaste  for  it  on  the 
part  of  the  buyer.  The  apparent  success  of  a 
few  such  mildly  humorous  devices  as  the  dog 
who  hears  "His  Master's  Voice";  the  Gold- 


GOOD  FEELING  A  REQUISITE       95 

Dust  twins;  and  the  cheery  chef  of  Cream  of 
Wheat  suggests  this.  Probably  the  failure 
of  certain  similar  attempts  is  due  to  the  poor 
quality  of  humor  employed.  To  be  funny 
artistically  requires  the  services  of  a  real 
humorist  An  advertiser  may  have  first-rate 
ability  as  a  composer  of  "straight"  copy  with- 
out being  a  clever  humorist.  In  recognition 
of  this  fact  some  advertisers  desirous  of  using 
humor  have  lately  called  in  professional 
humorists,  particularly  cartoonists,  and  have 
asked  them  to  prepare  copy  containing  the 
same  funny  situations  that  have  already 
caught  the  public  fancy.  Such  commercial- 
izations of  expert  humor  are  too  recent  to 
permit  us  to  draw  conclusions.  After  suffi- 
cient trial,  however,  they  may  tell  whether 
or  not  our  previous  failures  in  humorous  copy 
were  due  to  the  ineptness  of  copy-writers. 

Other  stimulants  of  good  feeling.  But  humor 
is  not  the  only  method  by  which  to  generate 
good  feeling.  Pleasantness  need  not  take  the 
form  of  hilarity.  It  may  be  esthetic;  called 
up  by  pleasing  combinations  of  colors  or  pleas- 
ing lines  of  a  package.  It  may  consist  of  the 
mild  feeling  of  recognition  called  up  by  fre- 
quency of  repetition  of  the  sales  message 
(Chapter  III).  It  may  be  the  feeling  which 


96        THE  MIND  OF  THE  BUYER 

in  the  preceding  chapter  we  called  interest, 
generated  by  the  linkage  of  old  with  new. 
It  may  be  one  of  the  feelings  accompanying 
desire,  where  pleasant  old  experiences  are 
attached  to  new  objects  vividly  projected  into 
the  future  (Chapter  VIII).  In  an  intense 
form  it  may  consist  of  some  pleasant  feeling 
(in  this  case  called  emotion)  accompanying 
instinctive  forms  of  reaction  discussed  in 
Chapter  XL 

Supremely  important  is  that  form  of  pleas- 
antness which,  in  our  final  chapter  we  shall 
discuss  under  the  name,  satisfaction.  There 
we  shall  supplement  this  discussion  by  show- 
ing that  good  feeling,  which  is  the  true  goal 
of  the  sale,  should  constitute,  indeed,  the 
great  sub-stratum  in  the  mind  of  the  buyer. 
Until  then  we  shall  rest  content  with  the  con- 
tention of  this  chapter,  namely,  that  by  means 
of  arousing  pleasant  feelings,  the  seller  calls 
forth  within  the  buyer  a  number  of  instinc- 
tive movements,  great  and  small ;  which  release 
a  great  amount  of  nervous  energy,  which  the 
seller  may  direct  into  the  act  of  purchase. 


CHAPTER  SEVEN 

THE  IMAGINATION  OF  THE  BUYER 

The  nature  of  image.  The  seller  has  at  his 
disposal  two  sorts  of  agencies  with  which  to 
influence  the  mind  of  the  buyer:  external 
physical  contrivances,  such  as  words,  letters, 
colors;  and  mental  agencies  residing  within 
the  mind-stream  of  the  buyer.  Like  Aladdin, 
the  seller  may  summon  from  the  invisible 
mind  of  the  buyer  certain  powerful  genii  which 
will  assist  him  mightily  in  bringing  about  the 
sale. 

These  mental  accessories  are  technically 
known  as  images;  and  they  reside  in  great 
numbers  in  the  mental  stream.  By  way  of 
definition  we  shall  call  an  image  a  mental 
copy  of  a  thing  which  has  once  been  impressed 
upon  the  senses.  The  word  image  is  some- 
what ill-chosen;  for  it  usually  signifies  some- 
thing connected  with  vision;  it  implies  that 
the  stuff  of  mental  images  is  entirely  visual. 
Such  a  conception  is  erroneous.  We  can  image 
practically  anything  that  we  can  sense.  We 

97 


98        THE  MIND  OF  THE  BUYER 

may  have  tactual  images  of  things  touched; 
auditory  images  of  things  heard;  gustatory 
images  of  things  tasted;  olfactory  images  of 
things  smelled;  and  so  on  through  the  entire 
range  of  sensations. 

The  law  of  association.  If  we  try  to  account 
for  this  power*  of  imaging,  we  must  refer 
to  the  nature  of  brain  tissue,  which  is  so  con- 
stituted that  any  object  impressed  upon  the 
senses  makes  a  permanent  modification  in  the 
brain;  to  recall  the  object  later,  one  needs 
only  to  revive  this  pathway.  One  usually 
accomplishes  this  revival  by  stimulating  an- 
other pathway  which  was  stimulated  when  the 
first  one  was  made.  As  a  rule,  several  path- 
ways are  stimulated  at  once.  They  are  asso- 
ciated, we  say.  This,  because  our  experiences 
are  necessarily  related  to  each  other;  either 
they  follow  closely  upon  each  other's  heels; 
or  else  they  possess  common  elements.  As 
a  result,  whenever  a  new  object  (a  commodity 
for  sale)  stimulates  one  pathway  it  revives 
another  at  the  same  time. 

Thus  the  seller  has  the  power  to  call  up 
within  the  mind  of  the  buyer  any  objects  ex- 
perienced in  the  past;  reviving  them  in  the 
form  of  images.  For  example,  with  the  word 
"Wrigley,"  he  may  call  up  "gum,"  which  has 


THE  IMAGINATION  OF  THE  BUYER    99 

been  frequently  associated  with  it.     Let  us 
observe  some  of  the  characteristics  of  images 
which  the  seller  may  utilize  in  furthering  the 
sale. 
Characteristics  of  images. 

1.  The  first,  as  we  have  already  said,  is 
variety.    Images  may  be  as  variegated  as  the 
senses. 

2.  Certain  kinds  are  more  numerous  than 
others.     In  point  of  numbers,  visual  images 
probably  come  first.     Measurements  in   the 
psychological    laboratory    have    shown    that 
most  people  can  use  visual  images  more  freely 
than  they  can  the  other  kinds.     Auditory 
images  come  next.    The  others  occur  with  con- 
siderable less  frequency.     Some  people  are 
able,  only  with  great  difficulty,  to  revive,  for 
example,  tastes  and  smells,  especially  those 
only  feebly  impressed.     To  test  this,  let  the 
reader  try  to  image  the  taste  of  coffee.     (Be 
sure  it  is  taste  and  not  smell.) 

We  do  not  mean  to  imply  that  images  other 
than  visual  and  auditory  are  absent  from  the 
ordinary  mind.  The  conclusion  which  we 
would  draw  is  that  the  seller  will  have  greater 
likelihood  of  calling  forth  visual  images.  He 
should  therefore  set  his  psychological  traps 
to  catch  this  kind.  When  he  wishes  to  make 


100   THE  MIND  OF  THE  BUYER 

the  buyer  appreciate  the  glories  of  apples 
from  the  Hood  Eiver  valley  he  will  be  able  to 
arouse  mental  visions  of  apples  more  easily 
than  mental  tastes,  smells  and  "touches." 
This  is  to  be  expected  because  images  are  de- 
rived from  previous  sensory  experiences;  and 
the  ordinary  buyer  has  come  into  contact  with 
apples  more  frequently  through  sight  than 
through  his  other  senses.  Assuredly,  however, 
any  of  the  other  forms  of  imagery  may  arise, 
and  the  seller  may  legitimately  appeal  to  any 
variety  that  he  wishes.  Indeed,  in  advertis- 
ing apples  he  might  evoke  mental  tastes  and 
smells  with  great  effectiveness  because  of 
the  strength  and  novelty  and  pleasantness 
that  would  probably  accompany  them. 

3.  Images  may  be  either  clear  or  obscure. 
Some  are  so  clear  as  to  be  hardly  distinguish- 
able from  original  sensations.  The  extreme 
form  of  such  self-deception  is  called  hallucina- 
tion. Not  all  images  come  with  this  degree  of 
clearness,  however.  Some  are  obscure,  fleeting 
and  sketchy,  almost  to  the  vanishing  point. 
Many  times  one  tries  to  image  the  voice  of  an 
absent  friend  with  no  more  revival  than  per- 
haps a  phrase  or  two  and  the  vague  sugges- 
tion of  an  intonation. 

In  view  of  this  fact,  the  seller  who  intends 


THE  IMAGINATION  OF  THE  BUYER  101 

to  utilize  to  the  full  the  imaginal  furniture 
of  the  buyer  should  strive  to  evoka  ims^es  that 
are  likely  to  be  clearest.  Naturally  he  cannot 
foresee  with  certainty  which',  the^e-  v.;H'  be/ 
Still  he  may  increase  his  chances  by  adopting 
this  general  rule:  Avoid  general  descriptive 
words,  and  choose  specific  words  in  which  to 
describe  the  article  for  sale.  For  example, 
in  announcing  a  sale  of  ladies'  silk  waists, 
avoid  the  old  stereotyped  phraseology: 

"Full  line  of  cr&pe  de  Chine  waists,  all  colors,"  etc. 

These  are  general,  indefinite  terms  without 
character,  personality  or  definiteness.  Use 
instead,  definite  descriptive  phrases  which 
will  call  up  clean-cut  images: 

"Call  and  examine  this  group  of  cr$pe  de  Chine 
waists.  Supple,  clinging  fabrics  that  give  a  slender 
silhouette  grace  to  the  figure. 

"For  the  debutante  there  are  shades  of  blushing 

old  rose    (visual);   for   the  matron,  soft    (touch) 

pastel  mauves;   for  the  elderly  woman,  the  warm 

(temperature)  ivory  tints  that  take  one  back  to  the 

courtly  days  of  Louis  XIV." 

These  phrasings  tell  the  facts:  there  is  a 
full  line — for  young  and  old,  slender  and 
stout;  and  suggest  that  there  are  all  colors. 
All  by  means  of  specific  pictures  called  up  in 
the  mind  of  the  buyer. 


102      THE  MIND  OF  THE  BUYER 

To  achieve  this  kind  of  definiteness  is  a 
difficult  task.-  Our  lazy  human  nature  tempts 
us  to  follow  the  line  of  least  resistance  and  to 
•use  general  terms.  We  are  prone  to  describe 
all  things  with  the  same  words :  "wonderful," 
"great  bargain,"  "immense  saving."  These 
are  not  descriptive  words  at  all ;  they  give  no 
hint  of  the  nature  or  quality  of  the  article. 
They  may  with  equal  pertinency  be  applied 
to  a  house  and  lot,  an  automobile,  a  pair  of 
gloves,  a  block  of  oil  stock. 

One  explanation  of  our  proneness  toward 
the  use  of  general,  indefinite  terms  is  the 
poverty  of  our  vocabularies.  We  have  not 
formed  the  habit  of  using  words  of  variety 
sufficient  for  the  designation  of  fine  shades 
of  meaning.  The  remedy  is  obvious:  develop 
a  full  and  exact  vocabulary.  In  describing 
a  commodity,  search  out  words  which  fit  it 
exactly  and  which  represent  its  varied  quali- 
ties vividly  in  the  mind  of  the  buyer. 

4.  Images  may  bring  strong  feelings  in 
their  train.  This  is  especially  true  of  infre- 
quent but  unusually  vivid  images.  In  en- 
circling the  sale  with  pleasant  feelings  as 
recommended  in  Chapter  VI,  the  seller  may 
use  these  with  great  profit.  There  are  certain 
images  that  generally  bring  pleasant  feelings 


THE  IMAGINATION  OF  THE  BUYER  103 

— images  of  eating  ice-cream  and  similar 
dainties.  These  are  much  used  by  a  certain 
candy  company  in  advertising  its  chocolates. 
There  are  other  images  that  generally  bring 
unpleasant  feelings — noisome  animals  and 
reptiles.  Besides  such  general  tendencies 
there  are  likes  and  dislikes  peculiar  to  certain 
individuals — idiosyncracies  developed  in  the 
course  of  experience.  The  seller  should  study 
them  and  use  only  those  images  which  have 
pleasant  associations. 

Empathy  in  the  sale.  One  interesting  use  to 
which  we  occasionally  put  mental  images  is 
in  that  process  called  "empathy."  Empathy 
may  be  defined  as  "the  process  of  humanizing 
objects,  of  reading  or  feeling  ourselves  into 
them.'7  We  are  so  constituted  that  we  are 
inclined  to  place  ourselves  imaginally  into 
situations  that  may  be  presented  before  us. 
We  do  this  sometimes  over  so  simple  a  thing 
as  a  straight  line.  If  it  slants  at  a  certain 
angle  without  any  visible  means  of  support 
it  gives  us  an  uncomfortable  feeling.  We  feel 
as  though  we  were  the  line;  and  to  hold  an 
attitude  of  such  obliquity  gives  us  uncomfort- 
able feelings  of  strain.  The  reader  may  note 
such  feelings  as  he  looks  at  Figure  8.  The 
line,  a,  with  its  overweighted  top,  and  the 


104      THE  MIND  OF  THE  BUYER 

triangle,  b,  with  its  lack  of  poise,  give 
the  observer  distinctly  unpleasant  feelings. 
Architects  make  allowance  for  such  conditions 
in  planning  the  lines  of  a  building.  They 
know  that  abrupt  corners  give  a  feeling  of 
sharpness;  straight  lines,  a  feeling  of  hard- 
ness; curves,  a  feeling  of  softness.  When 


a  be 

FIG.  8. 

building  an  unsupported  marquise  over  the 
entrance  of  a  building,  they  usually  tilt  it 
slightly  upward  as  in  Figure  8,  c,  rather 
than  build  it  on  a  horizontal  plane.  For 
they  know  that  if  it  were  horizontal,  the  ob- 
server, with  his  empathetic  tendency,  would 
feel  that  he  ought  to  support  it  to  keep  it 
from  falling.  If  it  is  already  tilted  upward, 
however,  he  does  not  feel  obliged  to  push  it 
up  any  higher.  Sellers  should  observe  this 
empathetic  tendency  in  human  nature  and 
should  make  allowances  for  it  in  present- 
ing their  wares.  Particularly  important  is 


THE  IMAGINATION  OF  THE  BUYER  105 

it    in    advertising    and    window    decoration. 

Summary.  Reviewing  this  discussion,  we 
may  conclude  that  the  seller  has  a  valuable 
set  of  allies  in  the  mind  of  the  buyer — mental 
images.  Thanks  to  the  power  of  association 
he  may  call  them  up  at  his  pleasure.  Visual 
images  are  more  numerous  than  the  others; 
hence  may  be  angled  for  with  greater  chances 
of  success.  There  is  some  virtue  in  variety, 
however;  and  under  certain  circumstances 
the  seller  may  strengthen  his  appeal  by  using 
many  kinds — there  are  as  many  as  there  are 
kinds  of  sensation. 

In  discussing  the  methods  by  which  images 
may  be  most  certainly  called  up,  we  recom- 
mended the  use  of  specific  rather  than  general 
terms.  And  as  a  method  of  incorporating 
more  of  these  into  the  sale,  we  counseled  a 
vigorous  increase  in  vocabulary. 

Finally,  we  recommended  that  the  seller 
study  carefully  the  words  he  intends  to  use 
descriptively,  in  order  to  make  sure  that  they 
will  call  up  only  pleasant  feelings. 

We  have  here  given  only  a  partial  treatment 
of  the  subject  of  images  in  the  mind  of  the 
buyer.  We  shall  show  further  uses  for  them 
in  connection  with  our  discussion  of  the  next 
stage  of  the  sale — Desire. 


STAGE  THREE— DESIRE 


CHAPTER  EIGHT 

DESIRE 

Desire  an  outgrowth  of  interest.  Interest,  if 
it  persists  long  enough,  tends  to  merge  into 
desire.  Accordingly  one  way  to  arouse  desire 
is  to  employ  methods  described  in  the  preced- 
ing chapters.  These  are  not  all-sufficient,  how- 
ever, for  desire  is  after  all  a  unique  mental 
process  requiring  special  analysis. 

Development  of  desire.  The  development  of 
a  desire  involves  a  certain  series  of  steps 
which  we  shall  describe  in  order. 

1.  First  comes  attention  to  a  new  object 
— something  material,  as  an  automobile;  or 
immaterial,  such  as  stock  in  an  oil  well.    We 
discussed  methods  of  attracting  attention  to 
this  in  Chapter  II. 

2.  Within  this  new  object  the  buyer  recog- 
nizes certain  elements  which  are  related  to 
his  past  experience.     In  the  new  automobile 
he  sees  an  objecf  that  has  given  him  many 
pleasant  rides  in  the  past;  in  the  oil  stock 
he  visualizes  the  fortune  which  some  friend 

109 


110      THE  MIND  OF  THE  BUYER 

made  through  such  an  investment  He  vir- 
tually takes  a  piece  out  of  his  past  and  pro- 
jects it  into  the  future,  in  relation  to  the  new 
object.  We  described  this  relation  between 
the  new  and  the  old  in  Chapter  V. 

3.  This  forward  projection  of  the  buyer's 
past  is  quite  likely  to  be  in  terms  of  the  images 
discussed  in  Chapter  VII.    The  buyer  creates 
pictures  of  himself  bowling  along  the  boule- 
vards in  the  motor  car,  no  longer  as  passenger 
but  as  driver.     He  imagines  the  things  that 
he  will  do  with  the  dividends  from  his  oil- 
stock. 

4.  These  trains  of  images  are  pleasantly 
toned    (see   Chapters   VI    and   VII).     And 
generally  speaking  the  greater  the  pleasant- 
ness the  greater  the  desire.     We  might  lay 
it  down  as  a  rule  that  one  who  wishes  to 
strengthen  the  buyer's  desire  for  an  object 
should  arouse  within  him  strong  feelings  of 
pleasantness.     The  mechanism  for  arousing 
these  is  the  use  of  the  imagery  discussed  in 
Chapter  V    (paragraph  3).     Call   up  vivid 
images  from  the  buyer's  past,  being  careful 
that  they  be  markedly  pleasant.     Then  mix 
them  into  a  picture  showing  future  possibili- 
ties.    Paint  a  definite  picture  of  the  buyer 
driving  his  family  into  the  country  on  Sunday 


DESIRE  111 

and  enjoying  a  picnic  dinner  in  a  shady  grove. 
Embellish  every  selling  point  with  definite 
clean-cut  images  as  directed  in  Chapter  VII. 
An  extraordinarily  effective  example  of  this 
is  the  slogan  "Like  mother  used  to  make." 
Here  are  all  the  elements  that  go  to  produce 
strong  desire:  visual  images  of  the  fat, 
browned  mince  pie  of  childhood  days;  gusta- 
tory images  of  sinking  one's  teeth  into  the 
mass  and  allowing  the  flavor  to  permeate  the 
mouth ;  olfactory  images  of  the  spicy  sweetish 
odor  as  the  pie  comes  smoking  from  the  oven ; 
and  above  all  the  image  of  mother's  gentle 
smile  as  she  cuts  the  golden  object  and  dis- 
penses it  around  the  table.  Everything  con- 
nected with  this  picture  is  pleasant  in  retro- 
spect. It  is,  therefore,  a  capital  segment  of 
experience  to  project  into  the  future  in  rela- 
tion to  a  new  kind  of  mince  meat. 

5.  So  vivid  are  these  images,  and  so  allur- 
ing, that  they  lead  the  buyer  to  make  move- 
ments toward  the  object  about  which  they 
center.  These  movements  are  a  very  impor- 
tant part  of  the  desire.  They  are  always 
there.  An  infant  evinces  a  desire  for  a  watch 
by  reaching  toward  it.  An  adult  also  has  an 
impulse  to  reach  out  and  touch  the  object 
of  his  desire.  True,  under  the  repressive  in- 


112      THE  MIND  OF  THE  BUYER 

fluence  of  civilization  he  often  inhibits  the 
outward  signs  of  movement;  still  he  moves 
if  only  by  twitching  his  muscles.  Many  times 
he  acts  in  ways  unknown  to  himself,  through 
some  of  the  hidden  muscles  and  glands  men- 
tioned in  Chapter  VI.  Imperceptible  though 
they  are,  these  faint,  incipient  movements  con- 
stitute a  vital  part  of  desire. 

When  the  movements  of  the  buyer  are  gross 
enough  to  be  observable,  the  seller  may  use 
them  as  indices  to  determine  how  highly  de- 
veloped the  desire  is.  For  in  general  as  the 
buyer  becomes  more  desirous  of  the  object  he 
makes  more  violent  movements  toward  it.  He 
grasps  it  with  firmer  grip;  or  makes  more 
minute  examination  of  it;  or  sits  down  in  it 
with  an  air  of  proprietorship. 

6.  If  the  first  movement  toward  an  object 
results  in  its  purchase,  desire  does  not  last 
very  long.    Usually,  however,  the  first  move- 
ment does  not  bring  about  the  attainment  of 
the  object.     It  is  blocked  in  some  way.     The 
obstruction  may  be  material:  an  intervening 
window  glass;  distance  from  the  object  pic- 
tured.   Or  it  may  be  mental :  an  idea  of  some 
other  object  which  is  still  more  strongly  de- 
sired. 

7.  This  obstruction  is  accompanied  by  un- 


DESIEE  113 

pleasant  feelings.  At  this  stage  desire  is 
chiefly  marked  by  unhappiness.  The  greater 
the  desire  the  more  intense  is  the  unpleasant- 
ness. 

8.  If  the  sale  is  to  be  consummated  this 
block  must  be  removed  so  that  the  movement 
toward  the  object  may  take  place  freely.    This 
is  the  special  task  of  the  salesman.    To  per- 
form it  he  should  concentrate  effort  upon  the 
lines  mentioned  in  paragraph  4. 

9.  With    the   blocks   removed   the   buyer 
moves  freely  toward  the  object  and  attains  it. 
He  then  feels  markedly  pleasant — a  sign  that 
the  period  of  desire  is  ended. 

Desire  and  the  mental  stream.  In  making 
this  analytical  study  of  desire  we  have  treated 
the  mental  stream  somewhat  artificially.  We 
have  greatly  retarded  it;  causing  it  to  flow 
more  slowly  than  is  actually  the  case.  We 
have  also  for  the  time  being  neglected  several 
facts : 

a.  As  the  last  block  is  removed  and  the 
buyer  reaches  freely  for  the  object  he  usually 
makes  a  decision."    This,  although  the  cul- 
mination of  desire,  is  still  such  a  distinct 
mental  state  that  we  shall  devote  a  chapter 
specially  to  it  (Chapter  XIII). 

b.  In  hastening  this  decision  and  removing 


114   THE  MIND  OF  THE  BUYER 

the  blocks  to  the  buyer's  movements,  the  seller 
usually  employs  reason,  suggestion,  and  other 
mental  aids  discussed  throughout  this  book. 

c.  The  pleasure  following  the  fulfillment 
of  desire  is  that  same  mental  condition  which 
in  Chapter  XIV  we  shall  call  "satisfaction." 

Though  these  cross-references  and  duplica- 
tions may  seem  a  trifle  confusing  to  the  reader, 
they  are  unavoidable;  for  we  are  making 
longitudinal-  and  cross-sections  of  a  complex 
stream  which  does  not  lend  itself  readily  to 
sharp  clean-cut  divisions. 

Summary.  We  shall  conclude  this  chapter, 
at  the  risk  of  undue  repetition,  by  character- 
izing desire  as  a  stage  in  the  mental  stream 
akin  to  interest  but  a  step  beyond.  A  stage 
in  which  the  buyer  fastens  certain  past  ex- 
periences upon  a  framework  of  future  pros- 
pects, relating  them  all  to  the  object  for  sale. 
He  likes  the  ensemble  so  well  that  he  reaches 
out  after  the  object  with  either  actual  or  in- 
cipient movements.  At  first  these  movements 
are  blocked  by  physical  or  ideational  impedi- 
ments. These  the  seller  must  remove.  He 
may  do  so  by  calling  up  action-impelling 
images  in  the  mind  of  the  buyer,  and  images 
that  are  clothed  with  exceedingly  pleasant 
feelings. 


STAGE  FOUR— CONFIDENCE 


CHAPTER  NINE 

CONFIDENCE  AND  GOOD  WILL 

Introduction.  Somewhere  in  the  course  of 
the  sale  comes  a  stage  which  we  may  designate 
confidence.  The  strength  of  this  confidence 
may  vary  between  wide  limits.  In  an  old 
long-tried  commodity  the  buyer  may  have 
unbounded  confidence  from  the  beginning  of 
his  purchase;  in  a  strange  one,  almost  none. 
Nevertheless  before  he  consents  to  invest  very 
much  money  in  an  article  he  must  have  at 
least  a  modicum  of  confidence,  either  in  the 
commodity,  or  the  seller,  or  both. 

No  argument  is  needed  to  prove  that  the 
confidence  of  the  buying  public  is  a  decided 
asset  to  a  seller.  Sellers  demonstrate  their 
belief  in  this  continually.  They  spend 
princely  sums  announcing  to  the  world  that 
they  are  reliable.  They  spend  large  portions 
of  this  money  simply  giving  publicity  to  a 
trade-mark — to  be  used  as  a  confidence-in- 
spiring badge  upon  all  their  products.  Wit- 
ness in  this  connection  the  efforts  expended 
117 


118   THE  MIND  OF  THE  BUYER 

to  create  public  confidence  in  "57  varieties." 
The  large  money  values  which  are  sometimes 
estimated  to  inhere  in  confidence  (sometimes 
called  the  good  will  of  a  concern)  are  further 
evidences  of  its  large  place  in  business.  In 
arriving  at  such  an  evaluation,  one  accountant 
writes:  "Good  will  is  a  legitimate  asset  in 
an  industrial  enterprise,  and  the  most  ac- 
cepted method  of  computing  the  amount  of 
good  will  is  to  take  the  total  profits  for  the 
last  five  years  and  deduct  from  them  five 
years'  interest  on  the  capitalization  at  7  per 
cent  per  annum;  the  balance  is  good  will." 
Confidence  and  good  will  are  habits.  In  busi- 
ness inventories  confidence,  or  good  will,  is 
usually  spoken  of  as  one  of  the  "intangible" 
assets  of  a  firm,  and  is  thereby  classed  as 
something  that  is  only  theoretically  ex- 
istent. It  is  our  purpose  in  this  chapter  to 
show  that  though  it  is  intangible  it  is  never- 
theless real.  That  in  the  process  of  the  sale 
it  occupies  a  place  second  to  none  of  the  other 
processes  we  are  describing.  If  any  one  were 
to  ask  us  where  lurks  this  invisible  asset, 
where  it  makes  it  habitat,  we  should  answer, 
In  the  mind  of  the  buyer.  It  exists  there  as 
a  system  of  habits  which  the  seller  Las  built 
up  by  dint  of  much  labor  and  cost.  These 


CONFIDENCE  AND  GOOD  WILL    119 

habits  consist  of  acts  or  tendencies  that  are 
favorable  to  the  seller  and  his  commodity. 
The  good  will  belonging  to  a  certain  haber- 
dashery dealer  consists  psychologically  in  my 
habit  of  turning  in  at  his  door  rather  than 
that  of  his  competitor  when  I  wish  to  buy 
collars.  The  good  will  of  a  certain  firm  of 
collar  manufacturers  consists  of  my  habit  of 
asking  for  their  brand  rather  than  another, 
and  of  recommending  it  to  my  friends.  These 
habits,  while  in  a  sense  belonging  to  me,  be- 
long just  as  truly  to  the  seller;  they  are  paid 
for  by  the  money  which  he  has  used  in  ad- 
vertising and  by  the  pains  he  has  taken  to 
serve  me. 

It  shall  be  our  purpose  in  this  chapter  to 
describe  the  processes  through  which  these 
habits  of  confidence  and  good  will  are  built 
up. 

Genesis  and  development  of  confidence.  It  is 
possible  for  the  seller  to  build  up  confidence 
because  of  a  certain  fundamental  trait  in  the 
buyer's  mind.  To  find  its  roots  we  shall  be 
obliged  to  probe  far  back  into  the  days  of 
infancy.  There,  at  the  time  when  the  mental 
life  of  the  individual  is  first  unfolding,  we 
shall  find  the  roots  of  that  which  blooms  forth 
as  adult  confidence.  When  we  thus  examine 


120      THE  MIND  OF  THE  BUYER 

the  mental  life  of  the  infant,  we  find  as  the 
first  forerunner  of  confidence  a  simple,  in- 
choate mental  attitude  which  can  hardly  be 
expressed  by  any  more  definite  term  than  a 
"feeling,  of  simple-reality";  this  is  attached 
to  every  object  of  experience.  In  every  act 
of  perceiving  the  infant  implicitly  says,  "Ah ! 
I  sense  something  here;  I  guess  I  can  rely 
Upon  my  senses."  He  feels  that  if  he  can 
sense  the  object  it  must  really  be  there.  Ex- 
istence is,  for  him,  simply  presence.  What- 
ever is,  is  real.  There  is  no  hint  of  disbelief 
in  anything  he  can  sense;  there  is  no  reason 
for  anything  but  confidence  in  its  existence. 
This  feeling,  crude  and  positive,  which  at- 
taches to  the  objects  of  infantile  experience, 
may  be  inelegantly  called  a  feeling  of 
"thereness." 

This  primeval  predecessor  of  the  confidence- 
to-be  has  been  called  by  one  psychologist 
(Bain)  "primitive  credulity."  Bain  says  that 
the  mind  is  so  constituted  that  it  tends  to 
accept  as  true  every  statement  made  (see 
page  45).  Every  impression  made  upon  the 
mind  of  a  child  tends  to  receive  credence,  and 
is  accepted  unless  it  is  offset  by  a  contrary  im- 
pression. Now  in  the  mind  of  the  child  most 
impressions  come  without  any  contradictory 


CONFIDENCE  AND  GOOD  WILL    121 

impression.  Accordingly  the  child  readily 
believes  everything  told  it:  that  Santa  Clans 
comes  down  the  chimney;  that  fairies  inhabit 
the  flowers;  that  goblins  infest  the  dark. 

This  "primitive  credulity,"  so  strong  and 
absolute  in  early  infancy,  loses  some  of  its 
naivete*  as  time  passes.  Experiences  come 
which  dull  its  freshness.  The  transition  may 
happen  in  this  way.  One  day  the  child  be- 
comes hungry.  As  is  common  in  desire  (see 
page  111)  he  puts  forth  his  hands  to  touch  his 
milk-bottle  and  finds  nothing  there.  He  had 
a  feeling  of  reality  (attached  to  his  mental 
image  of  the  milk-bottle  which  had  always 
previously  been  at  hand  when  he  was  hungry), 
but  when  he  acted  upon  it  he  found  an  unex- 
pected absence  of  the  milk-bottle.  Accord- 
ingly he  has  a  new  feeling,  contrary  to  the 
old  feeling  of  reality;  which  can  only  be  de- 
scribed as  a  "feeling  of  unreality"  or  doubt. 

Following  this  first  experience  with  doubt 
the  child  encounters  it  frequently.  In  the 
course  of  experience  he  finds  that  a  certain 
reality-feeling  may  be  contradicted  by  many 
things;  either  by  lack  of  response  when  he 
acts  upon  it,  or  by  the  contradictory  evidence 
of  another  experience.  For  example,  the  ex- 
perience of  trying  to  crawl  down  the  chimney 


122   THE  MIND  OF  THE  BUYER 

and  failing,  makes  him  doubt  the  statement 
that  Santa  Clans  enters  through  that  passage. 

After  a  number  of  such  experiences,  coming 
more  frequently  as  adulthood  approaches,  the 
individual  forms  the  habit  of  suppressing  his 
innate  tendencies  to  credulity.  He  tests  every 
one  of  his  feelings  of  reality  with  his  other 
experiences.  He  tentatively  acts  upon  them 
to  see  if  they  bring  the  response  to  be  ex- 
pected, and  he  places  alongside  them  the  ideas 
gained  from  former  experiences.  If  his  move- 
ments do  not  result  in  satisfactory  response, 
he  doubts.  If  the  new  impression  is  belied 
by  his  past  experiences  he  doubts.  Only  if 
the  new  object  gives  full  and  expected  re- 
sponse to  his  testing  movements,  and  agrees 
with  his  previous  experiences  is  his  doubt  re- 
solved and  changed  into  confidence. 

When  such  a  test  results  favorably  it  brings 
satisfaction  and  appeasement  of  desire.  In 
order  to  understand  how  great  may  be  this 
satisfaction  after  the  resolution  of  a  doubt, 
one  has  only  to  read  the  "Meditations"  of  some 
of  the  church  Fathers,  who,  after  having  been 
racked  and  torn  by  religious  doubts,  came 
to  a  state  of  perfect  belief  and  trust.  There 
too  one  may  secure  illuminating  understand- 
ing of  the  psychological  conditions  attending 


CONFIDENCE  AND  GOOD  WILL    123 

full  confidence.  After  reading  these  descrip- 
tions a  seller  may  understand  more  clearly 
what  a  powerful  ally  he  has  in  the  mind  of 
a  buyer  who  maintains  implicit  confidence  in 
his  (the  seller's)  goods. 

Such  in  outline  is  the  genesis  and  develop- 
ment of  confidence  in  the  lifetime  of  the  in- 
dividual. From  a  crude,  primitive,  almost 
animalistic  "sensation-coefficient/'  as  one 
psychologist  (Baldwin)  puts  it,  it  develops 
by  a  process  of  testing  of  thought  with  ex- 
ternality, into  the  refined  and  substantial 
force  that  we  call  by  such  meaningful  and 
solemn  words  as  belief,  trust,  credit,  faith. 
To  create  this  is  a  life-time  task.  Now  we 
see  why  it  often  requires  a  long  time  to  build 
up  public  confidence  in  certain  commodities. 
For  example,  it  took  a  long  time  for  the  public 
to  develop  confidence  in  the  business  of  ad- 
vertising as  such;  because  in  the  early  days 
of  advertising,  the  buyer,  trusting  his  first 
impressions  tinged  with  "primitive  credulity," 
attempted  to  act  upon  them  and  was  deceived. 
He  found  unreality  where  he  had  attributed 
reality.  For  a  long  time,  then,  whenever  he 
was  tempted  to  act  on  an  advertisement,  he 
recalled  his  first  unpleasant  experiences  and 
they  contradicted  the  statements  he  was  read- 


124       THE  MIND  OF  THE  BUYER 

ing.  So  he  exclaimed,  paraphrasing  the  dis- 
gruntled scriptural  writer,  "All  advertisers 
are  liars ;  I  will  not  believe  any  of  them."  If 
within  recent  years  the  buying  public  has 
developed  more  confidence  in  advertising  it  is 
because  advertisers  have  learned  to  make 
statements  which  agree  with  reality  and  which, 
when  acted  upon  by  the  buyer,  bring  satisfac- 
tory responses. 

Confidence  is  stable  but  fragile.  One  peculiar- 
ity about  confidence  is  that  after  it  has  passed 
through  the  stage  of  doubt  and  has  secured 
the  right  to  exist  by  means  of  a  long  agree- 
ment between  impression  ("simple  reality 
feelings")  and  fact,  then  it  stands  square  and 
solid.  We  say  of  an  individual  in  whom  we 
have  great  confidence,  "I  would  trust  him  with 
my  last  dollar."  And  this  solidity  endures 
as  long  as  the  feeling  of  reality  can  attach 
itself  unimpededly  to  the  object.  But  let  one 
slip  occur  and  the  structure  is  ruined.  Para- 
doxical as  it  may  seem,  confidence  is  at  the 
same  time  very  stable  and  very  fragile.  No- 
where is  this  demonstrated  more  forcibly  than 
in  the  business  of  banking.  The  confidence 
which  people  may  hold  in  a  bank  for  genera- 
tions may  be  shattered  over  night. 

Confidence,  the  goal  of  bank  advertising.    The 


CONFIDENCE  AND  GOOD  WILL    125 

business  of  banking  offers  an  excellent  field  in 
which  to  study  the  r61e  of  confidence  in  sell- 
ing. Dealing  as  it  does  with  the  accumulated 
treasure  of  civilized  man,  a  bank  is  obliged 
to  have  the  confidence  of  the  public  in  an  ex- 
traordinarily high  degree.  To  secure  this  it 
must  employ  methods  that  may  serve  as 
models  for  other  businesses  that  wish  to  com- 
mand confidence.  It  secures  on  its  Board 
of  Directors  men  who  are  notably  worthy  of 
confidence  in  their  own  right.  It  invests  in 
an  expensive  corner  where  real  estate  values 
are  palpably  high  and  stable.  It  erects  a 
building  which  is  strong  and  confidence-in- 
spiring. It  goes  farther  and  builds  into  the 
structure  features  which  do  not  make  for 
greater  solidity  but  which  appear  to  do  so. 
It  adopts  a  massive  style  of  architecture  and 
puts  heavy  gratings  before  the  windows.  It 
knows,  of  course,  that  a  lighter  structure 
would  house  the  bank  just  as  adequately,  but 
it  affects  an  appearance  of  great  strength  in 
order  to  impress  people  with  the  fact  that  their 
funds  will  be  perfectly  safe  in  its  vaults. 

Banks  are  often  accused  by  zealous  adver- 
tising men  of  being  too  conservative  in  their 
advertising.  Analyzed,  however,  from  the 
psychological  point  of  view,  this  conservatism 


126       THE  MIND  OF  THE  BUYER 

is  justified.  For  what  banks  seek  through 
advertising  is  first  confidence,  then  deposits. 
They  are  obliged  to  keep  confidence  as  their 
chief  aim.  They  know  that  at  best  it  is  a  pre- 
carious and  fragile  entity,  which  ever  so  slight 
a  thing  may  disturb ;  hence  they  refrain  from 
employing  any  methods  that  may  by  their 
eccentricity  shock  it. 

Two  devices  for  instilling  confidence.  From 
the  foregoing  analysis  of  confidence  the  reader 
is  prepared  to  see  what  usually  passes  in  the 
mind  of  the  buyer  when  he  is  developing  con- 
fidence in  a  commodity.  Due  to  his  "primitive 
credulity"  the  buyer  tends  to  believe  the  first 
statement  made  about  the  commodity.  Soon, 
however,  he  thinks  of  some  past  experiences 
which  controvert  the  statement,  which  arouse 
within  his  mind  disbeliefs,  and  which  act  as  in- 
hibitions to  the  purchase  of  the  commodity. 
These  the  seller  must  batter  down.  He  may 
use  two  psychological  aids: 

The  first  is  repetition.  An  assertion  re- 
peated often  enough  will  go  far  toward 
creating  belief  in  it.  This  is  the  psychological 
justification  for  the  constant  use  of  such 
slogans  as,  "Ask  the  man  who  owns  one"; 
"There's  a  reason";  "99  44/100 %  pure";  "An 
apple  a  day  keeps  the  doctor  away";  "The  ut- 


CONFIDENCE  AND  GOOD  WILL    127 

most  in  cigarettes";  "The  most  beautiful  car 
in  America." 

The  second  is  to  arouse  and  maintain  a 
feeling  of  satisfaction  within  the  buyer. 
Throughout  our  discussion  we  have  called 
confidence,  both  in  its  primitive  state  and  its 
refined  state,  a  feeling.  We  have  done  this 
designedly.  For  confidence  is  marked  by 
something  warm  and  pleasant — it  is  a  true 
feeling  as  we  defined  the  term  in  Chapter  VI. 
As  we  stated  in  that  chapter,  feeling  is  ever 
an  animus  to  action.  A  seller  may  give  ever 
so  convincing  arguments ;  he  may  bristle  with 
reasons  why  the  buyer  should  purchase  his 
article;  but  if  he  fail  to  create  confidence  he 
will  not  make  the  sale.  We  may  paraphrase 
the  old  adage  to  read:  "A  man  convinced 
without  the  feeling  of  confidence  is  of  the  same 
opinion  still." 

Summary.  We  have  here  laid  down  the  dic- 
tum that  confidence  is  inevitable  in  the  sale. 
Though  it  need  not  always  appear  as  stage 
four,  where  we  have  placed  it  in  the  logical  out- 
line of  this  book,  still  it  usually  comes  here  in 
the  sale  of  a  new  commodity.  Wherever  it 
comes,  it  must  exist  in  some  degree  of  strength, 
the  greater  the  better.  And  we  cited  some  com- 
modities to  which  it  adheres  with  the  solidity 


128       THE  MIND  OF  THE  BUYER 

of  Gibraltar.  Though  it  may  be  strong  and 
well-grounded,  however,  it  may,  under  very 
slight  provocation  and  lack  of  faithfulness, 
crumble  in  a  moment.  Therefore  the  seller 
must  exercise  constant  watchfulness  to  see 
that  he  keeps  his  pledges  and  fulfills  the  ex- 
pectations of  those  who  trust  him  and  his 
goods. 

Though  confidence  is  usually  regarded  as 
an  "intangible"  asset,  we  showed  that  it  has 
real  existence;  and  that  its  value  may  be 
reckoned  in  dollars  and  cents.  Psychologi- 
cally speaking  we  described  it  as  a  set  of  habits 
inculcated  within  the  buyer — motor  habits 
of  responding  to  the  seller's  appeals  with  acts 
of  purchase.  We  showed  the  simple  innate 
trait  upon  which  it  is  based,  and  related  how 
from  this  elemental  germ  it  grows  to  a  high 
plane  of  refinement  and  constancy. 

As  specific  psychological  aids  in  the  mold- 
ing of  this  into  perfect  form  we  recommend 
repetition  and  the  maintenance  of  pleasant 
feeling.  The  form  which  this  latter  should 
take  is  the  complete  satisfaction  of  the  needs 
of  the  buyer. 


STAGE  FIVE— DECISION 
AND  ACTION 


CHAPTER  TEN 

THE   POWER   OF   REASON 

Reason  and  the  will.  After  passing  through 
the  stages  just  described,  the  buyer  is  ready 
to  perform  the  act  of  purchase.  His  condition 
of  mind  at  this  moment  is  unique.  It  is  called 
by  such  names  as  decision,  resolution,  will, 
volition,  psychological  moment.  We  shall 
discuss  its  most  critical  aspect  in  Chapter 
XIII  under  the  caption,  The  Psychological 
Moment.  Meanwhile  we  shall  discuss  several 
subordinate  mental  processes  that  may  im- 
mediately precede  it  and  influence  it:  reason- 
ing, instinct,  suggestion.  These,  we  hasten 
to  admit,  may  be  used  effectively  at  earlier 
stages  of  the  sale;  but  they  are  the  battery  of 
forces  which  the  seller  usually  reserves  for  the 
crucial  moment  of  decision;  hence  we  have 
waited  until  this  point  to  discuss  them. 

Analysis  of  reasoning.  When  a  person  rea- 
sons, he  goes  through  four  rather  clearly- 
marked  stages.  In  his  mental  stream  we  may 
distinguish  four  divisions :  (1)  the  awareness 

131 


132       THE  MIND  OF  THE  BUYER 

of  a  difficulty;  (2)  the  location  of  the  diffi- 
culty; (3)  the  search  for  a  solution;  (4)  the 
solution. 

By  way  of  illustration  let  us  imagine  a  sale 
in  which  the  buyer  decides  to  buy  an  auto- 
mobile tire  through  a  process  of  practically 
pure  reasoning.  Let  us  suppose  that  our  tire 
features  a  device  for  preventing  rim-cuts. 
How  shall  we  direct  the  reasoning  processes 
of  the  buyer  so  that  he  will  make  a  purchase? 

Recognition  of  a  difficulty.  First  we  should 
lead  him  to  see  that  one  of  his  great  automo- 
biling  problems  is  the  short  life  of  his  tires. 
He  will  doubtless  readily  admit  this  to  be 
true.  Though  there  might  be  circumstances 
under  which  the  buyer  would  not  have  such 
a  clear  consciousness  of  the  problem ;  in  which 
case  the  task  of  the  seller  is  to  picture  the 
problem  in  extraordinarily  vivid  terms.  We 
shall  revert  to  this  point  in  a  later  paragraph. 

Location  of  difficulty.  Our  second  task  is  to 
locate  the  difficulty  by  showing  the  cause  of 
such  rapid  deterioration  of  tires.  We  shall 
locate  this  difficulty  in  the  wearing  by  the 
rim.  We  might  demonstrate  this  graphically 
by  picking  up  an  old  tire  and  showing  the 
buyer  how  the  walls  of  the  tire  have  been 
broken  down  by  the  sharp  impact  with  the 


THE  POWER  OF  KEASON          133 

rim.  Or  more  dramatically  still  by  exhibiting 
a  recently  bought  tire  of  the  old-fashioned 
kind,  which  went  flat  on  the  road  and  was 
driven  on  the  rim  to  the  nearest  garage ;  with 
the  result  that  the  rim  cut  through  the  new 
fabric.  Many  of  these  facts  will  be  new. to 
the  buyer.  He  will  be  astonished  to  discover 
the  insidious  destruction  that  is  going  on  in- 
side his  old-style  tires.  We  should  enlighten 
him  fully ;  showing  how  many  layers  there  are 
in  the  fabric  of  a  tire;  how  stout  it  is;  and 
still  how  quickly  one  layer  after  another  may 
be  eaten  through  without  the  protection  of 
our  beneficent  no-rim-cut  device. 

Our  whole  aim  at  this  point  should  be  to 
make  a  vivid  presentation  of  the  deplorable 
condition  in  which  the  buyer  is  without  our 
tires.  Generally  speaking,  the  more  clearly 
he  sees  the  difficulties  of  his  situation,  the 
more  anxious  he  will  be  for  the  solution  when 
we  hand  it  to  him.  For  an  excellent  example 
of  the  tactics  to  pursue  at  this  stage  the  seller 
may  profitably  study  the  methods  used  by  a 
professional  evangelist  in  "selling"  religion. 
He  begins  by  showing  the  prospective  convert 
(buyer)  how  great  a  lack  there  is  in  his  life; 
and  how  he  faces  a  perpetual  problem  in  liv- 
ing. The  evangelist  paints  this  in  extremely 


134       THE  MIND  OF  THE  BUYER 

graphic  terms  so  that  the  "buyer"  will  re- 
spond readily  when  shown  that  the  way  of 
salvation  is  the  solution  to  his  problem.  In- 
deed, a  successful  evangelist  is  perforce  an 
excellent  salesman ;  and  he  can  teach  the  seller 
of  secular  wares  many  things  about  the  mind 
of  the  buyer. 

Presentation  of  solution.  Our  third  task  is 
to  offer  solutions  of  the  difficulty.  If  other 
solutions  than  ours  have  been  tried  unsuccess- 
fully we  might  refer  to  them  and  show  how 
they  failed.  Here  we  might  present  figures 
showing  the  average  lifetime  of  a  number  of 
tires  of  standard  make;  then  figures  showing 
the  average  length  of  life  of  our  no-rim-cut 
tire.  Thus  we  show  that  the  latter  is  the 
solution  of  the  problem. 

During  this  stage  come  the  "arguments" 
with  which  a  train  of  reasoning  is  usually 
conducted.  It  is  at  this  stage  that  the  buyer 
may  become  an  active  opponent  instead  of  a 
passive  listener  to  our  encomiums.  He  may 
bring  up  objections,  consisting  of  cases  from 
past  experience  in  which  our  commodity  might 
conceivably  fail.  He  may  put  forth  ideas 
of  his  own  and  test  them  out  against  our 
proposed  solution.  The  situation  at  this  point 
may  be  likened  to  a  court-room  scene  in  which 


THE  POWER  OF  REASON         135 

evidence  is  submitted  and  arguments  are  pre- 
sented for  and  against.  As  each  bit  of  evi- 
dence is  submitted,  the  judge  (buyer)  must 
test  it ;  must  weight  it  and  check  it  up  against 
experience. 

As  we  (the  seller)  defend  our  product  we 
must  produce  exactly  the  evidence  necessary 
to  refute  every  objection.  We  must  show  by 
actual  demonstration  how  strong  are  the 
fibers  in  our  fabric;  how  numerous  are  the 
layers;  and  how  we  have  padded  with  inde- 
structible material  the  strategic  spot  at  which 
the  cuts  occur. 

All  this  implies  that  the  salesman  has  exact 
and  complete  knowledge  of  the  processes  by 
which  the  tires  are  manufactured,  and  it  em- 
phasizes again  the  statement  made  in  Chapter 
V,  that  the  seller  should  be  thoroughly  ac- 
quainted with  his  product. 

Correct  solution  of  the  difficulty.  But  we 
have  reached  the  last  step  of  the  train  of  rea- 
soning without  noting  it  explicitly.  It  is 
here  that  the  buyer  recognizes  that  our  tires 
will  solve  his  problem.  The  moment  an- 
nounces itself  by  being  prefaced  with  "there- 
fore." If  the  train  of  reasoning  has  been 
skillfully  conducted  it  will  bring  a  conclusion 
tinged  with  finality.  It  will  come  clothed 


136       THE  MIND  OF  THE  BUYER 

with  confidence  and  belief.  Here  we  should 
like  to  repeat  all  that  we  asseverated  in 
Chapter  IX. 

Points  for  special  attention.  In  appealing  to 
the  buyer  through  reason,  the  seller  should 
guard  himself  with  particular  care  in  several 
respects : 

The  first  is  to  delineate  the  problem  of  the 
buyer  with  exceeding  sharpness.  To  do  this 
he  must  study  the  buyer's  needs  beforehand. 
Some  one  has  remarked  that  a  successful  sales- 
man must  know  more  about  the  buyer's  busi- 
ness than  the  buyer  does  himself. 

The  second  is  to  avoid  wandering  from  the 
point  at  issue.  The  temptations  to  talk  aim- 
lessly are  great,  especially  at  stage  three  of  a 
train  of  reasoning.  In  order  to  avoid  this  the 
salesman  might  well  outline  a  "sennonette" 
beforehand  according  to  this  pattern : 

1.  Problem:  Your  tires  wear  out  rapidly, 

2.  Location  and  difficulty:   Rim-cuts. 

Demonstrations  a,  b,  c,  d. 

3.  Various  solutions  have  been  tried: 

a,  b,  c,  d.  (The  buyer  will  suggest  some  of 
these.  The  seller  should  know  in  advance  what 
they  are,  and  be  prepared  to  meet  them  with 
counter-arguments,  but  he  need  not  bring 
them  up  himself.) 

4.  This  tire  meets  the  need  and  solves  the  problem. 


THE  POWER  OF  REASON         137 

By  following  such  an  outline  properly 
amplified,  a  seller  who  knows  his  goods  and 
also  the  mind  of  the  buyer  may  proceed  with 
confidence  to  conduct  a  sale  through  reason- 
ing. 

The  secondary  role  of  reason.  Though  we 
have  assumed  that  by  means  of  pure  reason 
the  seller  may  induce  the  buyer  to  purchase, 
still  we  should  not  deceive  ourselves  by  lay- 
ing too  much  stress  upon  it.  Rarely  does  a 
sale  depend  upon  reason  exclusively.  Some 
evidence  for  this  lies  in  certain  figures  gath- 
ered by  the  author  regarding  the  frequency 
with  which  advertisements  are  illustrated 
with  pictures  (non-reasoning  material). 
These  figures  show  that  ninety-two  per  cent 
of  contemporary  non-classified  advertisements 
are  illustrated.  Clearly,  then,  not  more  than 
eight  advertisements  in  a  hundred  rely  upon 
reasoning  exclusively.  And  of  the  remaining 
ninety-two  probably  a  large  majority  use  rea- 
son only  meagerly. 

In  fact,  in  many  sales  where  reason  is  in- 
volved it  plays  only  a  secondary  r61e.  As  we 
remarked  in  Chapter  VI  the  buyer  bases  his 
decision  chiefly  upon  feeling.  Then,  because 
he  likes  to  regard  himself  as  a  hard-headed 
man  who  must  be  "shown"  he  tries  to  justify 


138      THE  MIND  OF  THE  BUYER 

his  decision  by  reason.  He  uses  it  as  a  sop 
to  his  rationalising  conscience.  Experienced 
salesmen  have  discovered  this  fact  about 
human  nature,  and  they  often  use  "reason- 
able" arguments  principally  as  a  means  of 
justifying  the  choice  which  they  know  the 
buyer  has  already  implicitly  made  through 
feeling. 

Aside  from  this  vicarious  r61e,  however, 
reason  plays  a  serious  and  of twn  decisive  part 
in  the  sale.  Particularly  is  this  tbe  case  when 
selling  to  such  routine  buyers  as  professional 
purchasing  agents.  To  know  how  to  conduct 
a  reasoned  sale  properly  should,  therefore,  be 
made  a  matter  of  serious  study  by  every  in- 
telligent seller. 


CHAPTER  ELEVEN 

INSTINCTIVE    FACTORS 

Introduction.  Broadly  speaking,  the  actions 
of  the  buyer  have  two  sources:  habits  formed 
in  his  own  lifetime  and  inheritances  from  pre- 
vious generations.  We  have  considered  the 
first  with  considerable  detail  in  our  discussions 
of  repetition,  imagination,  interest,  desire, 
reason ;  pointing  out  devices  by  which  to  evoke 
the  so-called  habitual  actions.  We  have 
touched  only  lightly,  however,  upon  the 
sources  of  the  second  class  though  we  have 
been  obliged  to  take"  some  notice  of  them, 
particularly  when  discussing  attention  and 
feeling  We  shall  now  atone  for  this  neglect 
by  devoting  an  entire  chapter  to  them. 

Definition  of  instinctive  action.  We  call  these 
inherited  factors  instinctive,  defining  the 
term  as  follows :  An  instinctive  act  is  a  series 
of  acts  of  an  hereditary  nature,  having  a  defi- 
nite though  non-conscious  end,  and  accom- 
panied by  a  characteristic  feeling.  Let  us 

139 


140      THE  MIND  OF  THE  BUYER 

analyze  this  definition  and  point  out  the  char- 
acteristics of  instinctive  action. 
Characteristics  of  instinctive  action. 

1.  It  is  very  complicated.  It  is  not  a  simple, 
single  act  like  the  wink  of  an  eye.     Rather 
is  it  made  np  of  a  number  of  simple  acts.    Ob- 
serve the  bird  as  she  goes  through  the  instinc- 
tive act  of  nest-building.      She  performs  a 
series  of  simple  actions:  picking  up  a  string 
here,  a  twig  there,  a  hair  yonder;  and  laying 
them  in  the  nest.     In  the  same  way  the  in- 
stinctive actions  of  humans  consist  of  separate 
acts   chained   together,   though   this   linkage 
should  be  interpreted  according  to  the  follow- 
ing paragraph: 

2.  The  word  "series"  implies  not  merely 
multiplicity  of  acts  but  sequence  as  well.    The 
separate  simple  acts  comprising  an  instinctive 
act  almost  invariably  occur  in  the  same  order, 
and  as  we  shall  show  presently,  without  being 
planned  by  the  individual.     A  striking  ex- 
ample of  this  will  be  furnished  by  the  follow- 
ing description: 

"A  certain  beetle  of  the  genus  Sitaris  lays  its  eggs  at  the 
entrance  of  the  subterranean  galleries  excavated  by  a  kind 
of  mason  bee.  From  these  eggs  the  larvae  are  hatched  in 
autumn  as  active  little  insects  very  different  from  the 
ordinary  type  of  beetle  grub,  having  six  legs  each  armed 
•with  a  sharp  curved  hook.  In  the  winter  they  become 


INSTINCTIVE  FACTORS  141 

sluggish,  but  resume  their  activity  in  the  spring.  And  when 
in  April  the  drones  of  the  bee  emerge  and  pass  out  through 
the  gallery,  the  Sitaris  larvae  fasten  upon  them.  There 
they  remain  till  the  nuptial  flight  of  the  bees,  when,  as  the 
insects  mate,  they  pass  from  the  drone  to  the  female  bee. 
Then  again  they  wait  their  chance.  The  moment  a  bee  lays 
an  egg,  the  Sitaris  larva  springs  upon  it,  and  at  length 
breaks  its  prolonged  fast.  *Even  while  the  poor  mother  is 
carefully  fastening  up  her  cell,  her  mortal  enemy  is  begin- 
ning to  devour  her  offspring;  for  the  egg  of  the  [bee]  serves 
not  only  as  a  raft,  but  as  a  repast.  The  honey,  which  is 
enough  for  either,  would  be  too  little  for  both;  and  the 
Sitaris,  therefore,  at  its  first  meal,  relieves  itself  from  its 
only  rival.  After  eight  days  the  egg  is  consumed,  and  on 
the  empty  shell  the  Sitaris  undergoes  its  first  transforma- 
tion, and  malies  its  appearance  in  a  very  different  form. 
...  It  changes  to  a  white  fleshy,  grub,  so  organized  as  to 
float  on  the  surface  of  the  honey,  with  the  mouth  beneath 
and  the  spiracles  above  the  surface.  ...  In  this  state  it 
remains  until  the  honey  is  consumed,'  and,  after  some 
further  metamorphoses,  develops  into  a  perfect  beetle  in 
August. 

"Here,  then,  we  have  a  curious  and  marvelously  adaptive 
life-history,  with  specialized  changes  of  form  and  structure, 
and  with  correlated  modes  of  activity  at  each  stage. 
How  comes  it  to  perform  its  varied  activities,  each  step  of 
which  is  so  well  adapted  to  the  needs  of  the  stage  of  life  on 
which  it  is  entering?  Parental  teaching  is  altogether  ex- 
cluded, for  the  parent  never  sees  her  offspring;  each  in- 
dividual is  excluded  from  others  of  its  kind,  so  that 
imitation  is  also  excluded.  The  activities  cannot  be  per- 
formed through  intelligence  in  the  common  acceptation  of 
the  word,  for  intelligence  involves  the  profiting  by  individual 
experience.  The  larva  cannot  fasten  upon  the  drone  as  the 
result  of  any  previous  experience,  since  it  has  never  done 
anything  of  the  sort  before;  nor  can  it  pass  to  the  female 


142      THE  MIND  OF  THE  BUYER 

bee  because  experience  has  taught  it  that  such  a  procedure 
brings  with  it  satisfactory  consequences.  At  no  stage  of 
the  complex  process  can  intelligence,  based  on  individual 
experience,  be  admitted  as  a  factor.  If  there  be  experience, 
it  must  be  the  inherited  experience  of  ancestors  who  have, 
each  in  turn,  done  much  the  same." 


This  illustration  shows  the  invariable  se- 
quence with  which  the  simple  components  of 
a  complex  instinctive  act  follow  each  other. 

Upon  superficial  examination  one  might 
conclude  that  instinctive  acts  cannot  be  dif- 
ferentiated one  from  the  other,  because 
several  may  contain  identical  elementary  acts. 
This  is  true,  but  we  shall  find  on  closer  ex- 
amination, that  though  the  elementary  com- 
ponents of  several  instinctive  acts  may  be 
identical,  still  in  each  instinctive  pattern  they 
are  linked  together  in  a  unique  order.  For 
example,  though  the  simple  act  of  flushing 
in  the  face  may  occur  in  connection  with 
several  complicated  instinctive  actions,  such 
as  acts  of  shyness,  embarrassment,  modesty, 
even  of  pugnacity;  still  it  comes  surrounded 
by  other  elementary  acts  which  give  it  in 
each  case,  a  different  setting.  We  thus  say 
that  each  instinctive  act  has  a  distinct  pattern 
regardless  of  the  cloth  of  which  it  is  made. 

3.     Our  definition  next  emphasizes  the  fact 


INSTINCTIVE  FACTORS  143 

that  instinctive  actions  are  inherited.  There 
is  a  volume  of  significance  in  this  for  the 
seller,  which  we  shall  point  out  presently. 
For  the  moment,  let  us  elaborate  upon  the 
meaning  of  the  term  inheritance  in  general. 

a.  Let  us  note  first  that  anything  inherited 
may  come  not  merely  from  immediate  parents 
but  also  from  all  preceding  generations  in  the 
line  of  descent.    Some  of  the  things  we  inherit 
may  have  originated  millions  of  years  ago. 

b.  An  act  which  has  passed  down  through 
so  many  generations  is  thus  to  be  found  in 
all  the  members  of  the  species.    For  example, 
all  human  beings  tend  to  act  in  about  the  same 
way  when  afraid. 

c.  An  inherited  act  is  firmly  fixed.    It  has 
been  ingrained  within  so  many  generations 
and  transmitted  so  faithfully  from  generation 
to  generation  that  it  is  quite  firmly  embedded 
within  the  organism  of  the  last  inheritor. 

d.  It  may  be  quickly  aroused.     This  fol- 
lows from  the  fact  that  the  pathways  for  it 
are  well  marked  out  in  the  nervous  system. 
Now  to  wear  down  a  pathway  for  non-in- 
herited action  requires  considerable  time.    To 
do  so  through  reasoning  processes,   for  ex- 
ample,  requires  the   time   necessary  for  the 
nervous  impulse  to  travel  to  the  brain,  perhaps 


144       THE  MIND  OF  THE  BUYER 

calling  up  several  idea-systems  in  turn,  while 
the  individual  cogitates  about  the  matter  and 
debates  for  and  against  the  suggested  action. 
Instinctive  action,  however,  being  already 
inherent  in  the  organism,  requires  no  appre- 
ciable time  for  organization.  We  shall  pres- 
ently point  out  the  practical  significance  of 
this  in  selling. 

4.  Our  definition  next  describes  an  instinc- 
tive act  as  one  which  the  individual  may 
perform  without  knowledge  of  the  end.  For 
example,  when  one  turns  pale  in  fear,  he  may 
be  aware  of  the  fact,  but  may  not  see  any 
good  purpose  in  it.  In  fact,  he  may  regard 
it  as  detrimental.  Now,  though  the  end  of 
paling  in  fear  may  not  be  apparent  there  is 
probably  an  end  there,  or  there  has  been  at 
some  time  in  man's  history.  It  probably 
serves  in  some  way  to  preserve  life.  How 
can  paling  be  connected  with  the  preservation 
of  life?  Let  us  reason  it  out,  following 
Darwin,  on  the  basis  of  the  distribution  of 
the  blood.  At  time  of  fear,  what  is  the  politic 
thing  to  do?  Run  away.  But  to  run  re- 
quires a  sudden  access  of  strength  in  the 
muscles  of  the  legs.  To  bring  this  strength, 
blood  is  needed  there.  Nature  provides  for 
this  by  withdrawing  blood  from  portions  of 


INSTINCTIVE  FACTORS  145 

the  body  where  it  is  not  needed — of  which 
the  face  is  one — and  sending  it  down  to  the 
legs.  Of  course,  as  adult  man  has  schooled 
himself  to  repress  some  of  his  most  evident 
instinctive  actions,  he  may  not  always  use  up 
the  oversupply  of  blood  by  running  away; 
still  he  cannot  prevent  the  automatic,  instinc- 
tive part  of  the  act  from  occurring.  If  this 
reasonable  explanation  is  valid,  we  see  that 
the  instinctive  act  of  paling  has  a  real  and 
definite  end,  even  if  it  is  obscure  to  the  in- 
dividual. And  that  all  of  our  instinctive 
actions  may  conceivably  have  their  origin  in 
some  provision  similarly  useful. 

5.  The  final  part  of  our  definition  describes 
instinctive  action  as  freighted  with  strong 
feeling.  When  we  are  performing  an  instinc- 
tive act  we  are  emotionally  stirred  more 
deeply  than  when  we  are  acting  on  a  primarily 
reasoned  and  habitual  basis.  We  fore- 
shadowed this  statement  in  Chapter  VI  when 
we  said  that  feeling  is  usually  accompanied 
by  widespread  instinctive  action.  We  now 
state  the  converse:  instinctive  action  is  ac- 
companied by  feeling.  Perhaps  we  should 
more  accurately  use  the  plural  and  say  that 
instinctive  actions  are  accompanied  by  feel- 
ings; for  each  great  instinctive  action-pattern 


146      THE  MIND  OF  THE  BUYER 

possesses  a  feeling  peculiarly  its  own — usually 
called  an  emotion.  Consider,  for  example, 
the  instinctive  act  of  running  away  from  a 
fearsome  object — and  this  includes  all  the 
motions,  large  and  small,  that  aid  in  the 
flight:  the  locomotive  actions  of  the  legs;  the 
acceleration  of  the  heart-beat  which  pumps 
more  blood  into  the  legs ;  the  quickened  breath- 
ing which  furnishes  more  oxygen  to  the 
rapidly  flowing  blood;  the  actions  of  the  in- 
ternal glands  which  pour  strength-giving  sub- 
stances into  the  blood.  This  mass  of  corre- 
lated movement  that  we  call  the  instinct- 
pattern,  flight,  is  accompanied  by  the  emo- 
tional cast  of  feeling  which  we  call  fear.  The 
instinct-pattern  that  we  call  pugnacity  is 
accompanied  by  the  emotional  cast  of  feeling 
which  we  call  anger.  The  instinctive  action  of 
protecting  one's  young  is  accompanied  by  the 
emotional  feeling  called  parental  love.  Thus 
each  great  instinct-pattern  has  its  character- 
istic feeling. 

Classification  of  instinctive  actions  impracti- 
cable. At  this  point  we  should  like  to  make  a 
list  of  the  fundamental  human  instincts,  but 
we  can  hardly  do  so  with  confidence.  There 
are  several  reasons.  The  situations  when  in- 
stinctive actions  are  evoked  are  sometimes 


INSTINCTIVE  FACTORS  147 

complex,  so  that  more  than  one  of  the  in- 
stincts are  called  out.  The  resulting  action 
is  a  product  of  all;  hence  we  can  hardly 
secure  separate,  clean-cut  patterns.  Further- 
more, our  instinctive  actions  become  inter- 
penetrated, during  the  course  of  individual 
experience,  with  acquired  acts,  especially 
with  habits.  Since  we  rarely  see  the  pure 
manifestations  of  instinctive  action,  then,  we 
cannot  tell  exactly  how  many  instincts  there 
are. 

Though  we  shall  not  presume  to  give  a  com- 
plete list,  we  shall  probably  be  safe  in  recog- 
nizing the  existence  of  some  of  the  great 
classes  denoted  by  current  terms  like  self* 
preservation  (variously  called  locomotion? 
obtaining  food,  shelter,  play,  sleep)  ;  repro- 
duction; mating  (including  acts  of  coyness 
and  coquetry) ;  protection  of  the  young; 
flight;  pugnacity;  repulsion. 

Again,  "we  may  do  best  to  make  a  general 
classification  with  reference  to  the  end  that 
the  act  subserves,  rather  than  to  the  specific 
character  of  the  particular  instinct.  One  of 
the  most  convenient  divides  instincts  into 
three  classes:  (1)  those  which  preserve  the 
life  and  provide  for  the  welfare  of  the  in- 
dividual" ;  such  as  flight,  pugnacity,  hoarding, 


148       THE  MIND  OF  THE  BUYER 

curiosity.  "(2)  Those  which  provide  for  the 
continuance  of  the  race  and  family" ;  such  as, 
mating,  protection  of  home  and  of  young. 
"(3)  Those  which  make  for  the  welfare  of  the 
tribe  or  social  unit";  such  as  gregariousness, 
imitation.  "Some  of  the  acts  belong  to  more 
than  one  class — in  fact,  no  one  of  the  second 
or  third  would  be  possible  without  the  first 
— but  the  division  is  convenient  in  general 
and  may  serve  as  a  guide  through  the  maze." 

Its  value  in  the  sale.  Out  of  this  discussion 
of  the  characteristics  of  instinctive  action, 
modified  by  the  acknowledgment  that  adult 
instinctive  action  is  usually  associated  with 
acquired  forms  of  action,  the  reader  may 
emerge  with  at  least  one  clear  idea,  namely, 
that  the  actions  of  a  buyer  have  two  sources : 
individual  experiences  and  racial  experiences. 
Though  the  two  are  not  separate  in  their 
effects  upon  human  conduct,  still  those  of 
the  second  class  are  probably  the  ones  upon 
which  the  seller  may  depend  more  firmly  in 
moving  the  will  of  the  buyer.  Their  superior 
strength  lies  in  the  following  facts: 

Relatively  more  certain.  Instinctive  action, 
being  the  imprint  of  thousands  of  experiences 
upon  thousands  of  ancestors,  is  firmly  fixed 
within  an  individual;  hence,  the  appropriate 


INSTINCTIVE  FACTORS  149 

appeal  will  quite  certainly  bring  it  out.  Rea- 
soned action,  however,  being  based  only  upon 
individual  experience,  is  in  general  less  stable, 
at  any  rate,  less  firmly  fixed. 

Moreover,  because  instinctive  types  of  action 
are  present  in  all  members  of  the  species,  a 
seller  may  know  that  if  he  appeals  to  a  large 
number  of  buyers  with  the  same  device,  he 
will  with  a  high  degree  of  certainty,  secure 
the  same  response  from  all.  He  cannot  be 
so  certain  about  a  type  of  reasoned  action. 
For  people  are  often  prevented  from  listening 
to  reason  by  deep-seated  prejudices  or  ignor- 
ance; or  one  reason  may  appeal  to  one  buyer 
but  may  repel  another.  An  instinctive  action, 
however,  which  comes  from  one  person  is 
likely  to  come  in  about  the  same  strength  from 
all.  For  example,  an  appeal  based  upon  the 
welfare  of  one's  children  will  appeal  with 
about  equal  strength  to  all  parents. 

Quicker  in  response.  An  instinctive  action 
usually  comes  more  quickly  than  a  reasoned 
action.  This  is  partly  because  the  route  over 
which  the  impulses  must  pass  is  shorter.  In 
reasoned  action,  the  impulses  aroused  by  the 
seller  must  traverse  a  long  and  devious  path 
from  sense  organ  to  brain ;  there  they  branch 


150      THE  MIND  OF  THE  BUYER 

out  into  various  tracts,  representing  "idea- 
systems/'  while  the  ideas  are  being  weighed 
and  balanced  according  to  the  involved,  in- 
tricate procedure  outlined  in  Chapter  X. 
After  a  long  delay,  lasting  an  hour,  a  day, 
week,  month,  or  year,  the  action  follows.  In 
instinctive  action,  however,  the  pathways  are 
shorter  and  already  marked  out.  When  the 
stimulus  comes  the  act  follows  readily. 

Instinctive  action  marked  by  feeling.  The  last 
advantage  lies  in  the  fact  that  instinctive 
action  is  intimately  connected,  fairly  suffused, 
with  feeling.  Now  to  feeling  belong  certain 
possibilities  for  strengthening  action  which 
are  not  attributive  to  reason.  For  example, 
observe  the  way  in  which  an  evangelist  appeals 
to  his  audience  to  be  converted.  When  he 
uses  reason  he  finds  his  hearers  respectful  (if 
not  somnolent),  but  cold.  When  he  takes  up 
the  wand  of  feeling,  however,  he  quickly  se- 
cures results.  The  seller  who  desires  to  use 
influential  methods  of  appeal  will  learn  a 
lesson  from  successful  evangelists.  For  after 
all,  both  preacher  and  seller  have  the  same 
problem  psychologically — to  induce  action. 
And  both  need  to  use  the  same  psychological 
means  is  inducing  it 


INSTINCTIVE  FACTORS  151 

In  these  last  few  pages  we  have  spoken  as 
though  there  might  be  two  kinds  of  action, 
instinctive  and  reasoned.  As  a  matter  of 
fact,  this  is  an  artificial  partition,  justified 
only  by  the  necessities  of  literary  exposition. 
Actually  a  bit  of  human  conduct  may  contain 
at  the  same  time  both  instinctive  and  rea- 
soned factors.  The  object  of  our  comparison 
has  been  to  show  that  probably  a  seller  may 
work  more  easily  through  the  former  than 
through  the  latter. 

Summary.  We  have  now  completed  our 
treatment  of  the  hereditary  equipment — in- 
stinct— for  action  residing  within  the  buyer. 
We  found  it  resistant  to  satisfactory  analysis 
because  it  usually  occurs  in  connection  with 
some  obscuring  and  complicating  acquired 
action.  Also  because  jit  originated  far  back 
in  days  before  our  ken,  and  is  not  always  con- 
gruous and  understandable  in  its  present-day 
setting.  This  very  trait  of  inheritance,  how- 
ever, endows  it  with  value  in  the  sale.  It  is 
thereby  firmly  fixed;  universal  (present 
within  all  members  of  the  species)  ;  prompt; 
and  rich  with  the  vivifying  power  of  feeling. 


CHAPTER  TWELVE 

SUGGESTION  IN  THE  SALE 

Suggestion  is  regarded  as  mysterious.  Much 
has  been  said  during  recent  years  about  the 
psychology  of  suggestion  and  the  possibility 
of  using  it  in  selling.  So  much  mysterious 
potency  has  been  claimed  for  it  that  many 
sellers  believe  that  they  have  only  to  learn 
the  laws  of  suggestion  and  then  they  can 
impose  their  wills  unimpededly  upon  the  help- 
less, submissive  buying  public. 

This  aura  of  mystery  surrounding  sugges- 
tion results  from  the  dramatic  instances  which 
have  been  recounted  showing  its  power  in 
influencing  human  beings ;  particularly  in  the 
healing  of  disease.  People  suffering  or  alleged 
to  be  suffering  from  various  diseases  have 
been  treated  by  nothing  but  suggestion  with 
astonishing  results.  Consequently  the  public 
has  concluded  that  there  is  some  vital  force 
inherent  in  suggestion  which  can  be  employed 
in  all  conditions  of  life.  Still  further  awe 
is  attached  to  it  because  of  its  close  associa- 

152 


SUGGESTION  IN  THE  SALE        153 

tion  with  hypnotism — a  fascinating  and  ter- 
rifying thing  to  most  people. 

Analysis  of  suggested  action.  In  analyzing 
suggestion  and  showing  its  relation  to  the 
business  of  selling,  we  shall  frankly  eschew 
all  aspirations  to  wield  it  in  its  abnormal 
form.  For  in  the  sale  as  we  conceive  it,  we 
wish  to  use  only  legitimate,  normal  means  of 
influencing  the  buyer.  If  we  employ  sugges- 
tion, it  must  be  only  in  the  best  interests  of 
the  buyer.  We  shall  treat  it,  then,  as  a  per- 
fectly normal  occurrence  in  the  sale;  and  we 
shall  describe  it  in  plain,  everyday  terms  of 
speech. 

In  order  to  secure  a  clear  conception  of 
it  we  shall  first  give  it  analytic  definition. 
"By  suggestion  is  meant  a  great  class  of 
phenomena  typified  by  the  abrupt  entrance 
from  without  into  consciousness  of  an  idea 
or  image  which  becomes  a  part  of  the  stream 
of  thought  and  tends  to  produce  the  muscular 
and  volitional  efforts  which  ordinarily  follow 
upon  its  presence." 

This  definition  means  that  in  employing 
the  power  of  suggestion,  we  attempt  to  insert 
some  object  (whatever  we  have  for  sale)  mor<j 
or  less  abruptly  into  some  person's  mental 
stream.  There  is  nothing  mysterious  about 


154      THE  MIND  OF  THE  BUYER 

this.  We  simply  use  the  methods  already  de- 
scribed in  the  chapter  on  attention  (Chapter 
II).  The  object  thus  forced  into  the  mental 
stream  need  not  be  physical.  It  may  be  a 
correspondence  course  in  Business  English 
that  we  are  trying  to  sell,  or  a  seat  on  the 
Stock  Exchange.  Whatever  it  is  we  must 
push  it  into  the  mental  stream  with  as  little 
ado  as  possible.  There  it  finds  elements  of 
past  experience  which  are  akin  to  it,  and 
which  "absorb"  it,  as  related  in  Chapter  V. 

The  next  event — the  production  of  muscular 
efforts — is  more  difficult  to  describe,  and  to 
achieve.  It  is  here  that  the  greatest  amount 
of  mystery  centers;  and  here  that  the  great- 
est amount  of  skill  is  demanded  of  the  seller. 
How  can  a  psychical  thing  like  an  idea  change 
over  into  physical  energy  and  assume  the  form 
of  a  motor  act?  And  how  can  the  seller 
facilitate  such  transformation? 

The  answer  is  contained  partly  in  the  law 
of  ideo-motor  action:  "An  idea  in  the  mind 
tends  to  express  itself  in  movement."  An 
experiment  performed  in  the  psychological 
laboratory  demonstrates  this  dramatically. 
The  experimenter  fastens  a  recording  device 
to  the  top  of  a  person's  head  so  as  to  record 
the  slightest  movement.  Then  he  asks  the 


SUGGESTION  IN  THE  SALE        155 

subject  to  think  about  a  nearby  object.  After 
several  moments  the  record  shows  that  the 
subject  has  begun  to  lean  toward  the  object 
about  which  he  has  been  thinking. 

We  cannot  enter  into  a  discussion  of  the 
brain  mechanism  by  which  this  transforma- 
tion from  idea  to  movement  takes  place.  It 
is  inherent  in  the  association  of  brain  path- 
ways already  mentioned  on  page  45,  where 
we  said  that  when  an  act  has  been  performed 
once,  involving  two  or  more  pathways  in  the 
brain,  thereafter  when  the  first  pathway  (the 
idea  pathway)  is  aroused,  the  second  (the 
movement  pathway)  follows. 

If  we  examine  closely  our  daily  life  we 
may  see  numerous  examples  of  ideo-motor 
action.  A  housewife,  may  be  figuring  her 
household  accounts,  directing  her  mental 
stream  urgently  in  one  direction;  when  sud- 
denly a  vague  idea  enters  her  mind  that  her 
hair  needs  adjustment.  Automatically  her 
hand  moves  up  to  her  head  and  tucks  in  a 
hair-pin.  She  continues  her  work  uninter- 
ruptedly, and  probably  does  not  know  that 
she  has  made  the  movement. 

In  this  same  "unconscious"  way  we  all 
perform  scores  of  actions  in  the  course  of  a 
day.  We  may  possibly  thus  make  some  unim- 


156   THE  MIND  OF  THE  BUYER 

portant  purchases.  For  example,  the  idea 
"base-ball  score"  may  enter  our  mind  as  we 
leave  the  office  at  five  in  the  afternoon,  and 
may  be  strong  enough  in  its  own  right  to 
lead  us  without  further  locution  of  thought 
to  reach  into  our  pocket  for  a  coin  and  buy 
a  paper. 

These  illustrations  show  that  there  is  a 
real  motive  power  resident  within  an  idea. 

If  this  is  the  case,  why  is  it  that  a  seller 
may  inject  an  idea  into  the  mind  of  the  buyer 
and  still  not  produce  the  desired  response? 

The  answer  is  that  the  idea  may  be  pre- 
vented from  achieving  its  motor  consequences 
by  the  presence  of  another  idea.  As  we 
showed  on  page  38  there  are  always  many 
things  in  the  mind — sensations,  ideas,  feel- 
ings, in  great  profusion.  Now  each  of  these 
has  its  own  motor  consequences,  and  if  left 
alone  will  probably  produce  them.  Mixed 
as  it  is,  however,  with  others,  all  struggling 
for  expression,  it  can  only  express  itself  as 
modified  by  the  others.  Some  of  them  help 
it  and  some  hinder  it.  The  task  of  the  seller 
is  to  encourage  those  ideas  which  are  favor- 
able to  his  pet-idea  and  to  suppress  those 
which  are  contrary  to  it.  In  accomplishing 
this  there  are  several  laws  to  be  observed : 


SUGGESTION  IN  THE  SALE        157 

Laws  of  suggestion. 

1.  Concentrate  the  attention  of  the  buyer 
upon  the  one  suggested  idea.     Do  not  merely 
endeavor  to  keep  out  of  his  mind  any  distract- 
ing ideas ;  but  go  further  and  divert  his  atten- 
tion  from   even   his   own   mental   processes. 
Keep    him    from    being    introspective.      He 
should  be  oblivious  to  the  fact  that  he  is  being 
suggested  to.     We  shall  bring  out  the  force 
of  this  injunction  more  clearly  in  connection 
with  a  later  law  (5). 

2.  Arrange  conditions  which  will  permit 
the  suggested  idea  to  flow  easily  into  action. 

a.  Immediateness  is  the  end  to  strive  for. 
When  the  idea  has  reached  its  proper  strength 
let  it  blossom  forth  in  action  at  once.    How 
many  sales  have  been  lost  because  just  as  the 
moment  of  action  arrived  there  was  a  delay, 
and  some  other  idea  arose  which  prevented 
action!     Because  of  this  contingency  the  ad- 
vertiser should  tell  in  his  advertisement  where 
to  secure  his  commodity  so  that  the  buyer  may 
act  on  any  happy  suggestion  "while  it  is  hot" ; 
and  the  salesman  should  have  the  contract  all 
ready  to  sign. 

b.  Naturalness  of  the  act  is  another  de- 
sirability.   Make  the  suggested  action  appear 
so  natural  and  matter-of-course  that  it  will 


158       THE  MIND  OF  THE  BUYER 

withstand  every  contradictory  impulse.  Make 
the  suggested  course  of  action  appear  in- 
evitable. 

3.  The  inevitableness  may  be  enhanced  by 
another  important  law :  Make  the  suggestion 
simple.  If  you  wish  to  arouse  an  action,  sug- 
gest only  that  one.  In  writing  an  advertise- 
ment, for  example,  it  is  a  violation  of  this 


a 

FIG.  9. 


principle  to  suggest:  "(1)  Ask  your  dealer 
for  it;  (2)  or  if  he  does  not  have  it  send  us 
his  name;  (3)  or  send  us  fifty  cents  for  a 
sample  package."  Such  alternative  directions 
are  psychologically  faulty.  For  each  of  the 
three  ideas  arouses  some  ideo-motor  activity 
which  is  immediately  obstructed  by  that  which 
follows.  The  situation  may  be  represented 
by  Figure  9;  where  the  first  idea  arouses  a 
motor  impulse  over  pathway  abc ;  then  comes 


SUGGESTION  IN  THE  SALE        159 

the  second  idea  sending  forth  the  motor  im- 
pulse abd;  then  comes  the  third  idea  starting 
up  motor  impulse  abe.  By  this  time  the  pre- 
cious nervous  energy  that  was  available  for 
the  action  is  exhausted  and  dissipated,  and  it 
starts  up  no  action  at  all.  The  correction  for 
such  a  situation  is  to  make  only  one  suggestion 
at  a  time. 

4.  Make  positive  suggestions.  A  negative 
suggestion  is  one  containing  "no"  or  "not" 
and  should  be  avoided.  Violations  of  this  law 
are  exceedingly  numerous  in  selling,  particu- 
larly in  the  manufacture  of  business  slogans. 

"Don't  say ;  say ,"  is  a  favorite  form. 

"Accept  no  substitute,"  is  another. 

The  psychological  offense  in  negative  sug- 
gestion is  that  the  real  motive  force  of  a 
phrase  lies  in  the  idea  of  the  action,  not  in 
the  way  the  action  is-  modified  verbally.  In 
the  slogan  "Accept  no  substitute,"  the  real 
idea  is  "Accept  substitute."  To  negute  it 
does  not  materially  weaken  its  force.  The 
phrase  really  suggests  to  the  buyer  that  he 
should  accept  a  substitute. 

A  very  little  analysis  of  selling  phrases 
from  this  point  of  view  will  show  that  many 
of  them  do  not  put  into  the  mind  of  the  buyer 
the  idea  intended  by  the  seller.  Let  us,  by 


160      THE  MIND  OP  THE  BUYER 

way  of  illustration,  analyze  a  well-known 
selling-phrase  which  may  lead  the  mind  far 
afield  from  the  direction  desired  by  the  seller : 
"Eventually,  why  not  now?" 

The  adverb  "eventually"  implies  a  verb  and 
subject;  in  all  likelihood :  "You  will  use  Gold 
Medal  Flour."  This  part  of  the  phrase  is  not 
wholly  reprehensible;  yet  it  has  one  faulty 
implication,  namely,  that  the  buyer  is  prob- 
ably going  to  delay  the  act  of  purchase.  It  is 
as  if  one  said  to  the  housewife :  "I  know  you 
are  using  some  other  flour  now.  Keep  on 
using  it ;  after  trial  you  will  change  to  another 
brand;  after  it  to  another.  Eventually,  how- 
ever (after  perhaps  twenty  years),  you  will 
come  to  ours."  Upon  such  analysis,  which  is 
surely  not  far-fetched,  the  first  part  of  the 
slogan  is  seen  to  contain  implications  that 
were  surely  never  intended  by  the  seller,  con- 
firming the  housewife  in  her  present  use  of 
another  flour. 

The  second  part  of  the  slogan  is  open  to 
still  more  serious  objection.  If  we  follow 
the  subterranean  conversation  between  seller 
and  buyer,  we  shall  find  that  the  seller  says 
by  implication:  "I  know  you  are  not  going 
to  buy  now."  The  buyer  replies,  "No !  I  am 
not."  The  seller  asks,  "Why  not?"  What 


SUGGESTION  IN  THE  SALE        161 

answer  is  more  likely  than  simply,  "Be- 
cause?" 

This  is  an  impasse.  Thought  stops.  No 
action  ensues.  A  suggestion  which  ends  in 
a  blank  wall  is  lacking  in  the  most  important 
element — an  act  to  be  performed;  not  an  act 
to  be  inhibited.  We  should  not  go  so  far  as  to 
assert  that  these  flaws  make  this  famous 
slogan  useless.  In  spite  of  its  faults  it  has 
been  successful  to  some  extent;  the  reason 
being  that  it  has  some  very  excellent  quali- 
ties. It  is  short;  it  has  an  element  of  flip- 
pancy which  delights  the  American  public; 
and  it  has  had  so  much  money  spent  upon  it 
during  its  lifetime  that  it  has  entered  pretty 
fully  into  the  thought  of  the  buying  public; 
indeed,  it  has  become  almost  a  proverb. 
Nevertheless  our  rule  still  holds  good :  In  de- 
vising a  new  slogan  use  a  positive  form  of 
statement  which  will  be  more  likely  to  incite 
the  buyer  to  downright  action. 

Admittedly  it  is  difficult  to  couch  all  sug- 
gestions in  positive  form,  especially  when  the 
seller  wishes  to  emphasize  some  prohibition 
or  caution.  A  very  good  lesson  in  this  regard 
may  be  learned  from  the  manufacturers  of 
Coca  Cola.  As  is  well  known,  many  people 
had  developed  the  habit  of  asking  the  soda 


162   THE  MIND  OF  THE  BUYER 

fountain  clerk,  "Give  me  a  glass  of  coke." 
The  manufacturers  did  not  like  this;  for  it 
permitted  the  clerk  to  substitute  some  imita- 
tion of  Coca  Cola  which  might  call  itself 
"coke."  Furthermore  the  abbreviation  is 
reminiscent  of  an  undesirable  drug  habit. 
How  break  the  public  of  the  habit  of  using  the 
obnoxious  appelation?  To  advertise,  "Don't 
say  coke,"  would  be  to  give  a  negative  sug- 
gestion, entailing  all  the  undesirable  conse- 
quences mentioned  above,  namely,  by  repeti- 
tion of  the  name  "coke"  the  people  who  used 
it  would  be  tempted  to  use  it  all  the  more; 
some  who  might  never  have  used  it  might  get 
the  habit;  and  worse,  the  real  idea  conveyed 
would  be  "Say  Coke,"  despite  the  negation. 

As  a  solution  to  this  quandary,  the  manu- 
facturers adopted  the  phrase,  "Ask  for  Coca 
Cola  by  its  full  name."  This  suggestion  is 
free  from  objections.  It  conveys  the  desired 
meaning;  it  is  positive;  and  if  people  follow 
it  they  will  be  doing  what  the  company  de- 
sires. This  illustration  shows  that  no  matter 
how  strong  the  temptation  to  use  negative 
suggestion,  if  the  seller  studies  his  situation 
carefully  and  takes  sufficient  thought,  he  will 
be  able  to  avoid  the  enervating  and  mislead- 


SUGGESTION  IN  THE  SALE        163 

ing  negative  and  express  his  suggestions  in 
the  positive  form. 

The  above  discussion  suggests  another  fact 
about  suggestion:  The  ideas  involved  in  a 
suggestion,  especially  in  an  indirect  sugges- 
tion, are  of  two  kinds.  Some  are  on  the  sur- 
face, explicit;  others  are  hidden,  implicit.  In 
the  suggestion,  "Ask  the  man  who  owns  one," 
the  implied  portions  are,  "If  you  want  to 
know  how  our  car  satisfies"  [ask  the  man  who 
owns  one] ;  "He  will  tell  you  that  it  gives 
perfect  satisfaction."  The  reader  will  find 
interesting  exercise  in  thus  analyzing  the 
many  suggestion-slogans  before  the  public, 
and  will  derive  much  benefit  therefrom  in  the 
task  of  strengthening  the  force  of  his  own 
selling  suggestions. 

5.  The  recognition  of  the  explicit-implicit 
nature  of  suggestion  leads  to  the  considera- 
tion of  another  law:  Normally  an  indirect 
suggestion  is  more  effective  than  a  direct  one. 
We  might  paraphrase  a  definition  of  direct 
suggestion  by  stating  that  it  is  a  suggestion 
in  which  you  say  what  you  mean ;  an  indirect 
one  is  one  in  which  you  say  one  thing  and 
mean  something  else.  Not  necessarily  the 
opposite.  The  distinction  is  rather  that  in 
indirect  suggestion  one  says  part  of  what  one 


164       THE  MIND  OF  THE  BUYER 

means,  then  leaves  the  other  person  to  com- 
plete the  meaning.  We  might  illustrate  as 
follows:  Direct  suggestion:  "Use  Prince 
Albert  Tobacco."  Indirect:  "Ty  Cobb  Uses 
Prince  Albert  Tobacco."  We  may  picture 
the  effect  of  these  upon  the  mind  of  the  buyer 
by  employing  the  filling-in  method  of  our 
last  illustration.  There  is  little  to  supply 
in  the  direct  form.  Everything  is  said.  In 
the  indirect  form,  however,  there  is  much  to 
supply.  All  that  is  said  explicitly  is  that  "Ty 
Cobb  smokes  Prince  Albert  Tobacco."  Im- 
plicitly, however,  a  good  deal  is  said.  The 
argument  runs  as  follows:  "Ty  Cobb  smokes 
Prince  Albert;  he  must  like  it.  He  is  a  man 
of  good  judgment  (in  baseball).  The  chances 
are  that  he  is  also  a  good  judge  of  tobacco. 
Therefore  Prince  Albert  must  be  a  good 
tobacco.  I'll  smoke  it." 

It  is  evident  that  there  is  room  for  con- 
siderable illogicality  in  indirect  suggestion. 
As  indicated  in  the  parenthesis  above,  in  order 
for  the  thought  to  flow  along  smoothly  in  the 
channel  desired  by  the  seller,  certain  assump- 
tions must  ordinarily  be  made.  The  assump- 
tion in  the  present  instance  is  that  the  famous 
ball  player  is  as  good  a  judge  of  tobacco  as  he 


SUGGESTION  IN  THE  SALE        165 

is  of  balls — a  conclusion  that  is  not  at  all 
certain. 

In  indirect  suggestion  one  may  employ 
many  degrees  of  obliqueness.  Some  sugges- 
tions require  a  great  amount  of  circuitous- 
ness.  As  for  example,  to  show  a  picture  of  a 
woman  with  an  extraordinarily  luxuriant 
growth  of  hair  in  the  advertisement  of  a  hair- 
tonic.  The  seller  need  not  verbally  claim 
any  relationship  between  the  hair-tonic  and 
the  hair  in  the  picture.  But  the  latter  acts 
as  an  indirect  suggestion  just  the  same.  The 
reader  of  the  advertisement  supplies:  "This 
woman  has  a  beautiful  growth  of  hair.  She 
obtained  it  by  using  Blank's  hair  tonic. 
Therefore  I  shall  have  such  a  head  of  hair  if 
I  use  it.  I  will  purchase  a  bottle." 

Dishonest  use  of  suggestion.  Because  of  the 
potency,  adaptability  and  insidiousness  of  in- 
direct suggestion,  sellers  are  strongly  tempted 
to  make  implicitly  dishonest  claims  for  their 
goods  without  making  them  explicitly.  Many 
a  seller  remains  within  the  pale  of  legal  recti- 
tude who,  when  subjected  to  the  test  of  psy- 
chological analysis,  falls  far  short  of  perfect 
honesty.  One  form  of  such  depredation  is  the 
infringement  upon  trade-mark  rights.  To  sub- 
ject copied  trade  marks  or  trade  names  to 


166      THE  MIND  OF  THE  BUYER 

psychological  analysis  like  the  above  would 
soon  give  a  basis  for  voting  them  fraudulent 
and  deceptive. 

Direct  vs.  indirect  suggestion.  In  asserting 
on  page  163  that  indirect  suggestion  is  nor- 
mally more  powerful  than  direct  suggestion, 
we  did  not  mean  to  condemn  the  latter  en- 
tirely. Direct  suggestion  has  certain  weight. 
Probably  it  is  most  useful  with  people  who 
"don't  know  their  own  minds/'  There  are 
undoubtedly  individuals  who  like  to  have  their 
decisions  made  for  them,  and  who  welcome 
unconsciously  a  direct  suggestion,  indeed,  a 
command.  Psychologists  who  have  experi- 
mented in  this  field,  however,  assert  that  even 
with  such  individuals,  the  desired  act  may  be 
instigated  by  means  of  indirect  suggestion. 
For  example,  when  the  time  comes  for  closing 
the  sale,  the  salesman  may  suggest  indirectly 
that  the  customer  has  already  made  his  de- 
cision, by  starting  to  wrap  up  the  article  or 
by  asking,  "Do  you  wish  it  delivered  to-day?" 

The  great  advantage  claimed  for  the  in- 
direct mode  of  appeal  is  that  it  does  not  have 
such  a  tendency  to  offend  those  persons  who 
do  know  their  own  minds,  and  desire  to  feel 
that  they  are  masters  of  their  fate. 

Counter-suggestion.     Thus  far  in  our  discus- 


SUGGESTION  IN  THE  SALE        167 

sion  we  have  mentioned  several  kinds  of  sug- 
gestion: abnormal,  normal,  positive,  negative, 
direct,  indirect.  There  are  two  other  kinds 
which  belong  in  any  thoroughgoing  treat- 
ment of  the  subject.  The  first  is  counter-sug- 
gestion. In  this  the  individual  making  the 
suggestion  has  one  desired  act  in  mind  but 
suggests  the  performance  of  its  direct  op- 
posite. A  type  of  mind  has  been  discovered 
which  reacts  oppositely  to  every  suggestion. 
"Cranky"  husbands  sometimes  exhibit  this 
tendency;  and  their  wives  move  them  by  sug- 
gesting the  opposite.  Obviously  a  seller  does 
not  meet  with  this  type  very  frequently,  but 
when  he  does,  he  may  use  counter-suggestion 
with  success. 

Auto-suggestion.  The  last  kind  of  sugges- 
tion we  shall  consider  is  auto-suggestion.  This 
is,  as  the  name  implies,  self-suggestion.  The 
seller  does  not  use  it  upon  the  buyer  but 
upon  himself.  A  salesman  has  great  need  of 
having  certain  ideas  injected  into  his  mental 
stream.  He  is  ready  prey  to  thoughts  of 
failure,  discouragement  and  weakness.  Let 
him  study  the  effect  of  suggestion  in  general 
and  remember  what  a  strength  there  is  in 
ideas.  He  may  be  cheered  by  the  fact  that 
he  is  just  as  certainly  susceptible  to  the  in- 


168       THE  MIND  OF  THE  BUYER 

fluence  of  suggestions  as  is  the  buyer.  Con- 
sequently if  he  wishes  to  perform  a  certain 
act,  let  him  put  into  his  own  mind  the  idea 
of  the  act,  following  the  laws  of  suggestion 
laid  down  in  the  foregoing.  Almost  every 
successful  salesman  could  give  startling  proof 
of  the  power  of  auto-suggestion  in  his  own 
life.  In  making  use  of  it  he  avoids  negative 
suggestion  by  banishing  from  his  mind  and 
conversation  all  thoughts  of  failure.  He 
nerves  himself  for  an  important  interview  by 
positive  suggestions  such  as,  "I  will  win." 
He  employs  direct  suggestion  by  asserting, 
"My  goods  come  up  to  every  claim  I  make  for 
them."  He  gives  himself  indirect  auto-sug- 
gestions by  straightening  his  spine,  squaring 
his  shoulders,  and  whistling — all  signs  of 
strength  and  courage.  In  brief  one  of  the 
most  important  lessons  the  seller  may  take 
away  from  this  chapter  is  the  thought  that 
suggestion  will  operate  upon  himself  as  well 
as  upon  the  buyer. 


CHAPTER  THIRTEEN 

THE  PSYCHOLOGICAL  MOMENT  IN  THE  SALE 

A  Critical  Period.  We  have  been  considering 
in  our  discussion  of  Stage  V,  three  important 
means  of  inducing  action.  We  shall  now  sup- 
pose that  by  these  various  means  we  have 
brought  the  buyer  to  the  point  of  "making  up 
his  mind."  This  point  shall  now  be  our  con- 
cern. We  may  call  it  the  "psychological 
moment,"  a  period  which  experienced  sales- 
men recognize  to  be  the  crucial  point  of  the 
sale.  They  regard  it  as  the  rock  upon  which 
one  is  most  likely  to  stumble.  For  many  a  man 
able  to  make  an  impressive  approach,  to  arouse 
deep  interest,  and  to  create  strong  desire,  can- 
not close  a  sale  because  he  cannot  handle  this 
moment  effectively. 

Generality  of  occurrence.  The  "psycholog- 
ical moment"  is  not  confined  to  the  business 
of  selling.  It  occurs  in  all  kinds  of  human 
relationships,  from  such  relatively  inconse- 
quential affairs  as  the  feeding  of  a  baby,  to 
such  momentous  events  as  the  precipitation  of 


170   THE  MIND  OF  THE  BUYER 

a  World  War.  It  occurs  when  the  astute 
evangelist  feels  it  proper  to  urge  his  hearers 
to  hit  the  sawdust  trail  and  when  the  seducer 
feels  that  he  may,  without  fear  of  rebuff,  press 
his  victim  to  take  the  first  drink.  No  kind  of 
affairs  appears  too  sacred  and  no  kind  too  pro- 
fane to  be  exempted^  from  the  "psychological 
moment."  As  evidence  of  the  aptness  of  the 
term  to  cover  a  multitude  of  situations  we  find 
it  applied  to  affairs  in  which  there  is  no  psychi- 
cal factor  whatever,  such  as  a  rain  so  timed 
as  to  save  a  corn  crop  or  to  the  eruption  of  a 
geyser. 

From  these  instances  we  see  that  the  term 
is  a  very  useful  one,  playing  a  large  part  in 
the  speech  and  thought  of  the  day.  True,  it 
smacks  somewhat  of  esotericism,  but  such  con- 
notation is  belied  by  the  fact  that  it  is  em- 
ployed with  equal  glibness  by  the  savant  and 
the  man  of  the  street.  Shakespeare  referred 
to  it  in  the  well-known  lines : 

"There  is  a  tide  in  the  affairs  of  men, 
Which  taken  at  the  flood,  leads  on  to  fortune." 

Napoleon  pointed  out  its  importance  in 
deciding  the  fate  of  battles : 

"In  all  battles,  a  moment  occurs  when  the  bravest  troops 
.  .  .  feel  inclined  to  run.  That  terror  proceeds  from  a  want 
of  confidence  in  their  own  courage  and  it  only  requires  a 


THE  PSYCHOLOGICAL  MOMENT   171 

slight  opportunity,  a  pretense,  to  restore  confidence  to  them. 
At  Arcola  I  won  the  battle  with  twenty-five  horsemen.  I 
seized  that  moment  of  lassitude,  gave  every  man  a  trumpet, 
and  gained  the  day  with  this  handful.  You  see  that  two 
armies  are  two  bodies  which  meet  and  endeavor  to  frighten 
each  other;  a  moment  of  panic  occurs,  and  that  moment  must 
be  turned  to  advantage.  When  a  man  has  been  present  in 
many  actions  he  distinguishes  that  moment  without  diffi- 
culty; it  is  as  easy  as  casting  up  an  addition." 

' 

The  matter  is  not  so  simple  as  these  lines 
imply,  as  any  salesman  will  testify.  It  is 
rather  a  matter  for  serious  psychological 
analysis.  In  making  such  analysis  of  the 
salesman's  moment  we  must  regard  the  sale, 
following  the  pattern  used  throughout  this 
book,  as  a  series  of  mental  changes  on  the 
part  of  the  buyer,*  leading  to  an  act  of  will 
which  culminates  in  satisfaction. 

An  idea  precedes.  An  idea  must  precede  de- 
cision and  action  in  the  sale.  We  have  said 
this  in  many  ways  throughout  the  preceding 
chapters  of  this  book.  And  we  have  shown 
that  the  seller  is  not  so  much  a  distributor 
of  goods  as  he  is  a  manipulator  of  ideas.  In 
order  to  bring  out  a  new  phase  of  this  thought 
we  shall  for  the  rhetorical  purposes  of  this 
chapter,  personify  the  Idea  and  speak  of  it  in 
capitals ;  though  the  reader  is  warned  that  such 
practice  is  strictly  frowned  upon  in  orthodox 


172      THE  MIND  OF  THE  BUYER 

psychological  circles.  We  shall  take  this 
liberty,  however,  for  in  these  days  when  the 
psychological  aspect  of  business  operations 
is  only  dimly  recognized  we  should  be 
pardoned  if  we  state  things  with  slightly 
bizarre  effect  in  our  efforts  to  show  their  im- 
portance. But  apart  from  such  claims  to 
anthropomorphism,  the  Idea  is  important 
enough  on  other  grounds  to  deserve  capitaliza- 
tion, for  sometimes  It  is  able  to  set  off  our 
actions  almost  automatically.  Through  a 
kind  of  action  technically  known  as  "dynamo- 
genesis"  (see  page  154).  It  occasionally  may 
pass  over  into  action  immediately  and  result 
in  a  sale.  For  example,  the  Idea,  "baseball 
score"  may  be  strong  enough  in  its  own  right 
to  lead  one  without  further  deliberation  to 
reach  into  the  pocket  for  a  coin  and  buy  a 
paper.  Such  a  purchase  is  so  shorn  of  volun- 
tary characteristics  as  not  to  furnish  us  with 
an  illustration  of  the  psychological  moment. 
But  not  all  sales  are  of  this  "hair-trigger" 
type,  and  most  Ideas  even  though  carefully 
implanted  in  the  mind  do  not  lead  directly  to 
purchase,  but  require  manipulation.  Indeed, 
such  is  the  case  with  all  our  deliberative 
sales.  An  analysis  of  the  fortunes  of  the  Idea, 


THE  PSYCHOLOGICAL  MOMENT  173 

therefore,  will  lead  us  to  our  goal,  the  psy- 
chological moment. 

Many  other  ideas  present.  The  word  analysis 
is  used  advisedly ;  for  as  we  showed  in  Chapter 
II,  at  time  of  a  sale  there  is  more  than  one 
Idea  in  the  mind  of  the  buyer.  There  are 
many  ideas  there,  each  one  potential  of  ini- 
tiating appropriate  action.  If  any  single  one 
is  to  win  out,  the  others  must  be  eliminated, 
Accordingly  we  see  that  the  problem  confront* 
ing  the  seller  is  to  strengthen  the  central 
Idea  and  eliminate  the  other  ideas.  How 
this  may  be  done  is  a  tale  full  of  dramatic 
situations.  Take,  for  example,  the  sale  of 
an  automobile.  The  buyer  enters  the  sales- 
room already  inoculated  with  the  Idea  of 
purchase.  But,  alas,  he  comes  with  many 
other  ideas  in  his  mind  at  the  same  time. 
He  has,  for  example,  an  idea  as  to  how  his 
bank  account  will  be  depleted  if  he  purchases 
a  car;  on  the  other  hand,  he  has  an  idea  of  the 
pleasures  which  attach  to  motoring.  Again, 
in  addition  to  the  Idea  of  this  particular  Car 
he  has  ideas  about  several  other  cars — lower- 
case i  and  c  this  time — which  he  has  ex- 
amined or  intends  to  examine.  All  these  ideas 
and  many  others  throng  upon  his  mental  field 
until  if  it  were  graphically  represented  it 


174   THE  MIND  OF  THE  BUYER 

would  resemble  a  full-moon  containing  a 
central  circle,  freckled  with  numerous  circlets 
of  different  sizes  representing  the  ideas  with 
their  different  strengths.  It  will  be  seen  that 
these  ideas  bear  different  relationships  to  the 
central  idea,  some  being  hostile,  others  sym- 
pathetic. Whether  they  hinder  or  help  they 
must  be  reckoned  with  and  must  be  manipu- 
lated to  the  glory  of  the  Idea,  which  must  be 
nourished  and  expanded  to  such  a  degree  that 
its  bulk  will  crowd  out  all  the  other  ideas. 
This  task  of  nourishment  confronts  every 
salesman;  indeed,  from  the  psychological 
standpoint  the  salesman  is  not  a  vender  of 
automobiles  but  a  manipulator  of  ideas.  His 
task  is  to  fan  the  flame  of  the  Idea  until  it 
becomes  to  the  buyer  the  consuming  interest 
in  life.  Beside  It,  everything  must  shrink  to 
nothingness — the  about-to-be-ravaged  bank- 
account,  the  heart-rending  burden  of  upkeep, 
the  mortgage  on  the  house,  last  year's  unpaid 
coal-bill — all  must  be  forgotten  in  the  over- 
powering compulsion  of  the  Idea.  And  the 
Idea  must  remain  the  greatest  thing  in  the 
world  long  enough  for  the  purchaser  to  sign 
his  check  or  sign  the  pay-as-you-use  contract. 
To  a  superficial  view  the  task  of  the  sales- 
man might  seem  to  be  that  of  taking  hold  of 


THE  PSYCHOLOGICAL  MOMENT  175 

these  unwelcome  ideas  and  thrusting  them 
into  outer  darkness,  but  such  a  conception  is 
erroneous  and  will  lead  to  egregious  error. 
If  the  mind  of  the  buyer  contains  the  idea  of 
another  car  the  proper  procedure  is  not  to 
dilate  negatively  upon  that  car  in  the  effort 
to  drive  it  out  of  his  mind.  Every  word  ut- 
tered about  that  car  acts  as  food  for  the  un- 
welcome idea  and  causes  it  to  wax  stronger 
and  stronger.  The  practice  of  criticizing  or 
condemning  a  rival  commodity  is  being  recog- 
nized as  poor  business  ethics,  but  we  may 
go  still  farther  and  say  that  to  speak  either 
in  praise  or  blame  of  rival  goods  is  poor  psy- 
chology, for  every  word  makes  the  undesired 
idea  still  more  troublesome. 

What  are  the  methods,  then,  by  which  the 
undesirable  ideas  may  be  forced  out  of  the 
mind  and  the  desired  One  enchanced?  The 
answer  is  to  force  attention  upon  It;  when 
this  happens,  the  strength  of  the  undesired 
ideas  automatically  decreases.  The  psycho- 
logical situation  may  become  clearer  when 
described  in  terms  of  brain  energy.  The 
brain,  according  to  some  psychologists,  is 
organized  into  a  number  of  ideational  systems, 
one  for  each  idea  that  exists  in  the  mind.  Any 
ideational  system  may  be  roused  into  action 


176       THE  MIND  OF  THE  BUYER 

by  the  drainage  into  it  of  brain  energy.  Now 
the  energy  of  the  brain  may  be  distributed 
in  various  amounts  over  different  systems, 
the  amount  in  each  system  depending  upon 
the  strength  of  the  corresponding  idea.  In 
the  case  of  our  sale,  if  the  main  Idea  is  to 
grow  in  strength  Its  brain-system  must  draw 
off  from  the  other  systems  the  brain  energy 
resident  within  them  until  the  energy  of  the 
brain  is  all  drained  off  into  the  one  system, 
which  means  the  triumph  of  the  Idea. 

Reverting  to  our  psychological  description 
of  the  sale,  we  might  pause  at  this  stage  and 
elaborate  upon  methods  of  strengthening  the 
Idea,  but  that  would  require  a  digression 
from  our  main  interest — the  psychological 
moment.  Suffice  it  to  say,  the  process  consists 
in  using  concrete  material  with  which  to  em- 
bellish the  Idea.  The  salesman  must  dilate 
upon  the  specific  virtues  of  the  car,  upon  the 
power  and  smoothness  of  the  engine,  the 
luxurious  ease  of  the  springs,  the  elegance  of 
the  upholstery.  Then  he  must  attach  as 
allies  to  the  Idea,  the  subsidiary  ideas  that 
lurk  sympathetically  in  the  background  of 
the  mind  of  the  buyer,  showing  how  the  car 
may  be  used  to  transport  oneself  and  family 
to  sylvan  spots,  how  it  may  assist  one  to  radi- 


THE  PSYCHOLOGICAL  MOMENT  177 

ate  an  air  of  prosperity,  and  the  like.  And 
with  each  increment  added  to  the  strength  of 
the  Idea  there  is  a  corresponding  diminution 
in  the  strength  of  the  undesirable  ideas  until 
finally  they  all  dwindle  away,  and  the  Idea 
is  left  with  undisputed  sway. 

The  dramatic  moment.  But  we  have  been 
moving  too  rapidly  in  our  description,  and 
have  passed  over  the  magic  moment.  It  comes 
just  before  the  Idea  bursts  forth  into  ac- 
tion, when  there  is  only  a  vestige  of  a  con- 
tradictory idea  making  a  last  valiant  stand 
against  annihilation.  What  a  desperately  un- 
certain period  it  is!  How  the  soul  of 
the  salesman  is  wrung  with  anguish !  Though 
outwardly  calm,  -he  is  inwardly  consumed 
with  anxiety.  Will  the  carefully  nourished 
Idea  be  powerful  enough  to  rout  Its  last 
bold  opponent  or  will  some  hostile  idea 
by  a  sudden  sally  pierce  Its  none  too  sound 
armor?  He  realizes  also  the  extreme  delicacy 
of  the  moment  and  prays  heartily  that  no 
untoward  stimulus  may  arise  to  disrupt  the 
delicate  balance  of  brain-energy.  He  knows 
from  bitter  experience  how  small  a  thing  may 
destroy  his  work.  He  has  seen  many  an 
"otherwise  perfectly  good  sale"  lost  because 
of  an  empty  fountain-pen,  a  telephone  call, 


178       THE  MIND  OF  THE  BUYER 

a  baby's  cry,  an  accident  in  the  street.  Any- 
thing, however  unrelated  to  the  commodity, 
may  spoil  the  sale.  Any  salesman  can  de- 
scribe a  score  of  such  catastrophes  which 
make  him  assert  that  the  psychological  mo- 
ment is  the  most  critical  stage  in  the  sale. 
And  he  does  not  overstate  the  fact.  The  ex- 
perience of  sales  managers  goes  to  show  that 
the  salesmen  who  fail  are  deficient  most  fre- 
quently in  ability  to  get  past  the  psychological 
moment.  They  make  a  good  approach,  arouse 
interest  in  the  goods  and  create  strong  desire, 
but  are  unable  to  make  a  good  closing.  They 
err  in  two  ways — in  trying  to  force  a  decision 
too  soon,  before  the  Idea  has  had  time  to 
reach  Its  maximum  dimensions,  or  in  delay- 
ing to  press  for  a  decision  until  after  the  Idea 
has  ripened  and  decayed.  In  either  case, 
their  error  lies  in  a  failure  to  recognize  the 
psychological  moment. 

How  recognize  it?  How  may  one  recognize 
the  psychological  moment  and  how  may  one 
cultivate  a  sensitiveness  for  its  approach? 
Undoubtedly  there  are  signs  that  accompany 
it,  for  successful  salesmen  sense  it  readily. 
Their  awareness  of  it,  however,  is  not  a 
vividly  self-conscious  matter,  for  they  cannot 
tell  how  they  recognize  it.  If  pressed  for  a 


THE  PSYCHOLOGICAL  MOMENT  179 

description  of  their  method,  they  would  prob- 
ably say,  by  intuition,  and  this  may  serve  as 
well  as  any  other  word.  But  the  process  of 
intuition  may  be  further  analyzed  into  a 
process  of  conscious  apprehension  through 
sense  avenues  which  we  all  possess.  Many  of 
th^ things  that  warn  of  the  approach  of  the 
moment  in  the  sale  are  £mall  involuntary 
movements  on  the  part  of  the  buyer,  such  as 
slight  inclinations  of  the  head  and  trunk, 
minute  contractions  and  relaxations  of  bodily 
muscles.  Even  so  slight  a  change  as  that  in 
the  size  of  the  pupil  of  the  eye  may  serve  to 
indicate  to  the  practiced  salesman  that  the 
portentous  moment  has  arrived.  Other  more 
obvious  signs  may  consist  of  verbal  responses 
of  the  buyer,  for  the  skillful  salesman  does 
not  do  all  the  talking  in  engineering  a  sale; 
instead  he  throws  out  frequent  feelers  in  the 
form  of  questions,  and  by  the  warmth  of  the 
response,  can  judge  how  nearly  a  decision 
has  been  reached.  A  hundred  cues  such  as 
these  are  present  and  are  automatically  used 
by  the  expert  salesman  in  identifying  the  psy- 
chological moment. 

How  meet  it?  Upon  recognizing  the  moment 
what  steps  may  the  salesman  take  to  see  that 
it  is  passed  most  auspiciously?  Our  psycho- 


180   THE  MIND  OF  THE  BUYER 

logical  analysis  just  completed  will  suggest 
measures.  Stage  the  sale  so  that  there  will 
be  no  disturbances  while  it  is  in  progress; 
for  any  disturbance,  no  matter  how  trivial, 
may  mean  the  introduction  of  a  new  idea  into 
the  mind  of  the  buyer  and  a  dislodgment  of 
the  balance  of  brain  energy.  In  view  of  such 
danger,  the  salesman  should  carefully  isolate 
the  buyer  and  separate  him  from  things  and 
people.  This  is  the  great  psychological  ad- 
vantage of  using  a  show  room. 

Another  prophylactic  measure  is  to  have 
conditions  favorable  for  the  immediate  con- 
summation of  the  sale.  As  we  pointed  out 
on  page  177  there  should  be  no  awkward  de- 
lay when  the  moment  arrives.  The  contract 
should  be  ready  and  the  writing  utensils  at 
hand.  All  should  move  as  smoothly  as  a 
theatrical  performance.  Indeed,  a  sale  in 
many  ways  resembles  a  drama  and  may  be 
rehearsed  with  equal  propriety. 

As  a  third  way  of  meeting  the  moment,  the 
following  plan  may  be  recommended:  As- 
sume that  the  sale  is  made — that  the  pur- 
chaser has  decided  to  buy — and  this  will  be 
true  if  the  salesman  has  judged  the  moment 
rightly.  Then  ask,  "What  color  of  upholstery 
do  you  prefer?"  or,  "Do  you  wish  immediate 


THE  PSYCHOLOGICAL  MOMENT  181 

delivery?"  Or,  commend  the  buyer's  decision. 
Careful  observation  will  show  that  many 
purchasers,  after  having  made  up  their  minds, 
really  desire  to  be  talked  to  for  a  while  in 
order  to  hear  their  choice  justified.  This  was 
suggested  in  connection  with  our  discussion 
of  reasoning,  page  138. 

Summary.  This  attempt  to  analyze  the 
"psychological  moment"  has  shown  that  it  is 
a  common  occurrence  in  mental  life,  especially 
important  in  the  sale.  That  it  is  a  period 
of  very  delicate  equilibrium  to  be  faced  with 
great  sagacity.  That  in  spite  of  its  occult 
aspect  it  is  not  a  supernatural  phenomenon 
to  be  controlled  by  a  few  gifted  initiates  pos- 
sessing mysterious  powers  of  divination ;  but 
that  it  is  a  natural  occurrence  resulting  from 
a  conflict  of  ideas  under  important  circum- 
stances. Finally,  that  it  exhibits  itself  in 
observable  changes  in  human  conduct,  readily 
apparent  to  one  who  will  look  for  them.  The 
salesman  who  recognizes  the  importance  of 
this  psychological  problem  and  who  seeks  to 
understand  it  and  to  master  its  intricacies, 
not  only  will  make  more  sales;  but  he  will 
gain  a  new  conception  of  salesmanship  and  a 
vision  of  new  possibilities  in  his  work  of  in- 
fluencing his  fellow-men. 


STAGE  SIX— SATISFACTION 


CHAPTER  FOURTEEN 

SATISFACTION  THE   GOAL 

Influence  upon  the  mental  stream.  To  the 
superficial  observer  and  to  the  person  who 
takes  a  narrow  individualistic  attitude  to- 
ward selling,  a  sale  is  completed  when  the 
money  has  passed  from  the  hand  of  the  buyer 
to  the  palm  of  the  seller.  To  one,  however, 
who  regards  the  sale  from  a  broadly  social 
point  of  view,  it  is  clear  that  the  sale  is  not 
completed  until  the  buyer  is  satisfied.  To 
analyze  the  mind  of  the  buyer  as  we  have 
done  throughout  this  book  reveals  the  psy- 
chological justification  for  this  statement. 

The  buyer  does  not  cease  thinking  about 
his  purchase  immediately  after  he  has  made 
it.  He  carries  along  in  his  mental  stream 
many  relics  of  it:  the  original  impression 
made  by  the  goods;  the  manners  of  the  sales- 
man; the  promptness  of  delivery.  If  he  does 
not  consciously  ruminate  about  these  facts, 
and  keep  them  in  the  center  of  his  attention, 
he  at  any  rate  carries  them  along  in  the 

185 


186      THE  MIND  OF  THE  BUYER 

margin  of  his  thought-stream;  and  when  he 
encounters  a  similar  article  he  recalls  his 
previous  experience.  If  it  was  satisfactory 
he  willingly  makes  a  repeat  purchase. 

Again,  the  buyer  carries  about  with  him  the 
visible  evidence  of  the  quality  of  the  article 
every  time  he  uses  it.  It  gives  him  either 
pleasure  or  displeasure.  If  it  wears  well  and 
fulfills  all  the  claims  made  for  it  he  feels 
satisfied  and  gives  a  repeat  order. 

We  might  state  parenthetically,  that  the 
satisfaction  we  are  talking  about  must  be  a 
real  satisfaction.  It  should  represent  the 
fulfillment  of  some  real  need  which  the  in- 
dividual has  in  his  battle  for  existence;  not 
a  fancied  whim  or  a  detrimental  desire  which 
has  been  created  and  fanned  into  strength  by 
some  unscrupulous  seller. 

Evidences  of  new  ideals  in  trade.  That  the 
best  of  modern  sellers  are  recognizing  the 
truth  of  our  doctrine  that  satisfaction  is  the 
true  goal  of  the  sale,  is  being  evinced  in 
several  ways.  During  the  past  two  decades 
numerous  symptoms  have  appeared:  changes 
in  methods  of  publicity;  of  approach  to  the 
customer;  of  post-sale  tactics;  of  policies;  of 
ideals — changes  in  the  very  philosophy  of 
trade. 


SATISFACTION  THE  GOAL        187 

In  proceeding  to  limn  these  changes  we  do 
not  mean  to  imply  that  they  have  taken  place 
suddenly.  They  have  gradually  evolved. 
Moreover  they  are  not  yet  completely  realized ; 
they  are  still  evolving.  The  things  we  shall 
undertake  to  describe  are  merely  trends,  in- 
dicating the  direction  of  the  evolution. 
Speaking  statistically,  we  mean  that  the  prac- 
tices and  ideals  to  be  mentioned  are  becoming 
more  common  than  formerly. 

Some  of  these  changes  have  significant 
ethical  consequences  portending  progress  to- 
ward certain  moral  goals  that  society  hopes 
to  reach.  There  are  important  economic  con- 
sequences involved,  also,  which  are  of  great 
interest.  We  shall  not  attempt  to  trace  these 
out,  however,  being  content  for  the  present 
merely  to  point  out  the  changes  in  styles  and 
fashions  of  selling.  We  shall  show  that 
whereas  certain  practices  and  ideals  were 
prevalent  a  score  of  years  ago,  others  are  now 
coming  into  vogue. 

New  conception  of  value.  The  first  change  we 
shall  note  is  a  new  attitude  on  the  part  of 
the  seller  toward  value.  In  the  previous 
period  it  was  customary  to  give  the  buyer  as 
little  as  possible  for  his  money.  In  the 
modern  period  the  ideal  is  to  give  as  much 


188       THE  MIND  OF  THE  BUYER 

as  possible.  Perhaps  the  clamorous  cries  of 
"profiteer"  now  (1920)  filling  the  air  tem- 
porarily prevent  us  from  sensing  this  more 
merciful  tendency  of  the  seller.  Nevertheless 
if  we  can  disregard  our  momentary  irritation 
over  the  high  cost  of  living  we  must  recognize 
the  general  improvement  in  conditions. 

An  objector  might  question  this  statement 
on  the  ground  that  it  implies  abrogation  or 
suspension  of  the  economic  law  of  competi- 
tion in  which  seller  and  buyer  struggle  for 
advantage.  In  rejoinder,  we  might  reply 
that  there  is  a  growing  tendency  for  the  seller 
to  identify  his  interests  with  those  of  the 
buyer.  He  is  coming  to  see  that  whatever 
benefits  the  buyer  may  in  turn  benefit  himself. 
We  shall  develop  this  further  in  another  con- 
nection. For  the  present  it  is  sufficient  to 
point  out  that  this  lessens  (though  it  does  not 
entirely  eliminate)  the  antagonism  between 
seller  and  buyer.  Second,  it  may  be  that  com- 
petition is  growing  stronger  among  the 
various  venders  of  a  given  commodity;  as 
competitors  become  more  numerous  each  one 
is  obliged  to  shade  prices  as  low  as  possible 
in  sheer  self-defense.  Third,  the  seller  is 
enabled  to  carry  out  the  ideal  stated  above 


SATISFACTION  THE  GOAL        189 

because   he  is   developing  more   economical 
methods  of  production  and  distribution. 

However  we  account  for  it  economically, 
we  must  recognize  a  more  overt  tendency  for 
the  seller  to  give  relatively  more  value  than 
formerly.  Surely  a  selling  policy  like  the 
one  recently  announced  by  an  Indianapolis 
department  store  is  indicative  of  momentous 
changes : 

"The  Ayers  Merchandising  Policy  forbids  the  advancing 
of  any  price  over  which  the  store  has  control.  Even  when 
new  goods  of  advanced  cost  are  placed  on  sale,  no  marking 
up  of  merchandise  in  stock  is  permitted,  even  though  the 
old  is  identical  with  the  new.  This  explains  why  one  may 
occasionally  find  identical  articles  selling  at  different  prices." 

The  sale  now  viewed  objectively.  Whereas 
a  sale  was  formerly  viewed  as  a  subjective 
matter,  it  is  now  regarded  as  an  objective 
one.  This  is  shown  in  several  ways: 

1.  Price  used  to  fluctuate  according  to  the 
skill  of  the  individual  buyer  in  beating  it 
down.  An  amusing  evidence  of  this  was  the 
sign  conspicuously  displayed  by  a  merchant 
wishing  to  curry  public  favor:  "One  price 
to  all."  "Jones,  the  one-price  clothier."  To 
haggle  was  considered  good  form  and  reputa- 
ble business  practice.  To-day  prices  are  gen- 
erally fixed.  To  haggle  is  passe.  Evidences 


190   THE  MIND  OF  THE  BUYER 

of  the  new  order  consist  in  the  practice  of 
stamping  the  price  of  shoes  on  the  sole;  the 
publishing  of  standard  prices  for  hats,  tires, 
and  the  like;  the  agitation  for  legislation  re- 
quiring the  manufacturer's  price  to  be 
stamped  upon  the  goods  before  they  reach  the 
retail  market. 

2.  Another  form  of  subjectivism  in  the  old 
regime  was  the  amount  of  entertaining  and 
subsidizing  that  the  seller  carried  on.     He 
was  expected  to  treat  the  buyer  with  cigars, 
wines,  dinner  and  theater.    To  one  acquainted 
with   modern   selling   practices  no   proof   is 
needed  of   the  obsolescence   of  this  custom. 
One  characteristic  feature  of  the  new  era  is 
the  rise  of  the  professional  purchasing-agent 
who  owes  his  job  to  the  skill  with  which  he 
can  keep  himself  clear  of  entangling  alliances 
and  can  buy  in  the  open  market  with  ob- 
jectively demonstrable  advantage. 

3.  Other  evidences  of  the  growing  tend- 
ency toward  objectivism  may  be  discovered 
by  comparing  the  tactics  of  salesmanship  em- 
ployed during  the  two  eras.    The  differences 
in  advertising  are  strikingly  brought  out  in 
these  two  advertisements.    The  first  appeared 
(with  name  changed)  in  Collier's  for  1900: 


SATISFACTION  THE  GOAL        191 

"Aloysius  B.  Strongman  teaches  by  mail,  with  perfect 
success,  his  original  and  scientific  method  of  physiological 
exercise. 

"It  is  the  only  natural,  easy  and  speedy  method  for 
obtaining  perfect  health,  physical  development  and  elasticity 
of  mind  and  body. 

"It  absolutely  cures  indigestion,  sleeplessness,  nervous  ex- 
haustion, and  revitalizes  the  whole  body." 

The  corresponding  advertisement  for  1916 
(same  magazine)  runs  as  follows : 

"The  Strongman  System  of  Purposeful  Evolution  gives 
unusual  health,  unusual  energy  and  unusual  vitality. 

"For  information  address:          ALOYSIUS  B.  STRONGMAN 

"New  York  City." 

The  measurement  of  truthfulness  in  advertis- 
ing. Advertisers  assert  that  they  are  growing 
more  truthful.  Proceeding  upon  the  general 
hypothesis  that  whatever  exists  may  be 
measured,  and  that  if  truthfulness  in  adver- 
tising is  on  the  increase  we  ought  to  be  able 
to  demonstrate  the  fact  mathematically,  the 
author  set  out  to  devise  a  method. 

It  was  first  necessary  to  adopt  a  criterion 
of  truthfulness  which  might  be  stated  in  units 
of  amount.  For  this  was  chosen  the  use  of 
words  in  the  superlative  degree.  Terms  like 
"best,"  "latest,"  "finest,"  "perfect/'  "abso- 
lutely unsurpassed,"  have  been  used  much  in 
advertising,  and  are  frowned  upon  as  viola- 


192   THE  MIND  OF  THE  BUYER 

tions  of  veracity.  For  certainly  not  every 
brand  of  breakfast  food,  dyspepsia  tablets, 
automobile  tires  and  flour  can  be  the  best. 
If  the  superlative  be  adopted  as  a  fairly 
satisfactory  criterion  of  truthfulness,  or 
rather  untruthfulness,  our  task  of  measure- 
ment is  quite  simple,  requiring  us  merely  to 
count  the  advertisements  containing  superla- 
tives and  compare  the  number  with  the  total 
number  of  advertisements  appearing.  This 
the  author  did,  using  the  files  of  three 
mediums  covering  the  period  1900-1919:  The 
Indianapolis  News,  a  typical  newspaper;  The 
Cosmopolitan,  a  typical  general  magazine; 
and  House  Beautiful,  a  typical  home  maga- 
zine. No  classified  advertisements  were  used. 
Results  are  presented  in  Figure  10. 

From  these  results  we  may  conclude  that 
untruthfulness  in  advertising  as  represented 
by  the  use  of  superlatives  is  decreasing. 
Whereas  in  1900  the  percentage  of  advertise: 
ments  containing  superlatives  was  twenty; 
by  1919  it  had  decreased  to  two.  In  terms 
of  probability  we  might  assert  that  whereas 
twenty  years  ago  the  chances  that  an  ad- 
vertiser was  telling  an  untruth  were  twenty 
in  a  hundred,  to-day  they  are  but  two  in  a 


SATISFACTION  THE  GOAL        193 


8 


'I 

si 
§  I 


194       THE  MIND  OF  THE  BUYER 

hundred.  We  may  accept  these  amounts  with 
considerable  confidence  because  they  appear 
in  all  three  of  the  diverse  mediums  examined. 

The  graph  shows  that  the  greatest  regular- 
ity in  the  decline  of  untruthfulness  comes 
after  1912.  This  is  approximately  the  date 
of  the  adoption  of  the  motto,  Truth,  by  the 
Associated  Advertising  Clubs  of  the  World. 
Previous  to  this  had  come  the  Congressional 
pure  food  and  drug  laws  of  1906.  For  some 
years  thereafter  advertisers  were  not  certain 
how  far  they  might  go  in  their  descriptions. 
As  the  curves  show,  they  oscillated  back  and 
forth  between  superlatives  and  weaker  state- 
ments. By  1912,  however,  they  either  had 
come  to  take  the  spirit  of  the  law  more  se- 
riously or  had  become  more  scrupulous,  or 
had  discovered  that  truthful  advertising  pays. 
Probably  under  the  influence  of  all  these 
causes  they  settled  down  to  a  growing  regard 
for  the  truth,  reducing  the  ratio  of  exaggera- 
tion rapidly  to  two  per  cent. 

The  author  does  not  advocate  the  use  of  the 
superlative  as  an  absolute  test  of  truthfulness 
in  advertising.  At  best  it  can  serve  as  only 
one  measure.  Other  measures  may  unques- 
tionably be  unearthed  with  industrious  re- 
search. Nevertheless  this  method  has  given 


SATISFACTION  THE  GOAL        195 

such  clean-cut  results  that  it  deserves  serious 
consideration  in  relation  to  the  important 
question  of  truth  in  advertising.  It  may  be 
used  to  measure  the  differences  in  truthfulness 
between  mediums;  to  aid  the  Vigilance  Com- 
mittee of  the  A.  A.  C.  W.  in  securing  objective 
basis  for  the  annual  award  of  the  Truth  Tro- 
phy; and  to  assist  the  Better  Business  Bu- 
reaus in  measuring  the  results  of  their  efforts 
to  police  and  to  educate  their  communities. 

Surely  these  tentative  results  give  us 
ground  for  hopefully  continuing  such  investi- 
gations, and  anticipating  the  time  when  we 
may  set  up  definite  ethical  standards  for  the 
advertiser  and  help  him  to  measure  his  prog- 
ress toward  his  goal.1 

The  sale  a  continuous  process.  The  mercan- 
tile transaction  of  former  days  was  tacitly 
regarded  as  an  affair  of  the  moment  only. 
Buyer  and  seller  were  as  two  ships  that 
pass  in  the  night.  The  attitude  was  that 
of  the  typical  horse-trader  who  never  ex- 
pected to  see  his  vis-a-vis  again.  To-day  the 
sale  is  coming  to  be  regarded  as  a  continuous 
process.  Ideally  considered,  no  sooner  is  one 

1  For  assistance  in  gathering  the  data  for  this  investiga- 
tion the  author  is  indebted  to  Miss  Jeanette  Stockton  and 
Mr.  Victor  Deitch,  students  in  the  Psychology  of  Adver- 
tising, Indiana  University. 


196      THE  MIND  OF  THE  BUYER 

transaction  concluded  than  another  is  begun. 
The  seller  of  a  piano  does  not  regard  a  sale  as 
completed  with  the  installation  of  the  instru- 
ment. He  realizes  that  he  may  have  an  op: 
portunity  to  sell  another  one  to  the  same  man, 
or  his  son,  or  his  daughter,  or  his  brother-in- 
law.  Accordingly  he  endeavors  to  keep  the 


vi  n 

y  in 

IV 

FIG.  11. 

(Reproduced  by  kind  permission  of  J.  B.  Lippincott  Company,  from 
the  author's  "Manual  for  the  Study  of  the  Psychology  of  Adrer- 
tising  and  Selling.") 

buyer  continually  in  a  buying  attitude.  How 
he  does  this  we  shall  recount  in  another  con- 
nection. For  the  present  we  may  note  the 
continuous  cycle  of  changes  in  the  sale;  the 
satisfaction  (Stage  Six)  engendered  by  one 
purchase  merging  into  the  attention  and  in- 
terest of  another.  See  Figure  11. 

Commodity  defined  as  service.  In  acting  upon 
this  conception  the  seller  tries  to  keep  the 
commodity  in  first-rate  condition.  He  gives 
elaborate  initial  instructions  regarding 


SATISFACTION  THE  GOAL        197 

care  of  the  new  storage  battery,  sewing  ma- 
chine, calculating  machine.  And  he  contin- 
ues his  instruction  by  sending  out  informative 
circulars  and  personal  inspectors.  He  goes 
further  and  sets  up  permanent  stations  for 
the  continuous  care  of  his  commodity. 

So  common  has  this  feature  of  selling  be- 
come that  we  might  broadly  affirm  that  one 
no  longer  sells  material  commodities,  but 
Service.  In  the  words  attributed  to  Henry 
Ford,  one  sells  not  automobiles  but  transpor- 
tation; not  tires  but  mileage.  Probably  the 
Eotary  Clubs  have  given  this  new  definition 
of  commodity  its  most  articulate  expression 
by  the  adoption  of  Service  as  their  motto. 
From  them  it  has  radiated  into  all  branches  of 
business.  Note  the  number  of  slogans  of  this 
character :  "Not  the  name  of  a  thing,  but  the 
mark  of  a  service."  "Our  world-wide  service 
for  tourists  is  enjoyed  constantly  by  thou- 


In  this  discussion  we  have  tried  to  point 
out  some  of  the  changes  that  have  occurred  in 
the  practices  and  ideals  of  trade.  Undoubt- 
edly those  mentioned  do  not  comprehend  all 
the  changes;  but  they  form  a  group  that  are 
akin  by  reason  of  their  recognition  of  the  hu- 
man factors  in  selling.  Moreover,  though  we 


198      THE  MIND  OF  THE  BUYER 

have  treated  them  as  distinct  trends,  we  must 
recognize  that  they  are  not  entirely  independ- 
ent of  each  other.  For  instance,  in  admitting 
that  a  true  sale  must  give  satisfaction  to  the 
buyer  we  recognize  the  continuity  of  the  sale. 
To  say  that  one  sells  service  is  to  admit  the 
truth  of  the  other  propositions. 

We  should  not  make  the  mistake  of  assum- 
ing that  these  ideals  are  completely  realized  or 
universally  adopted.  Still  they  indicate  the 
direction  of  the  main  current  of  thought  and 
practice,  and  to  a  shrewd  observer,  they  pre- 
sage the  nature  of  the  developments  that  are 
likely  to  come  in  the  future. 

Summary.  In  this  chapter  we  have  advo- 
cated the  adoption  of  the  view  that  the  real 
end  of  the  sale  is  the  satisfaction  of  the  buyer. 
As  one  line  of  evidence  we  have  pointed  to  the 
growing  use  of  satisfying  practices  on  the  part 
of  progressive  sellers. 

We  might  talk  about  these  improved  ideals 
and  practices  in  ethical  terms  and  say  that 
clearly  sellers  are  becoming  converted  to  a 
higher  standard  of  ethics  and  are  for  this 
reason  making  the  changes  noted.  Though 
the  ethical  ideals  of  trade  have  been  growing 
more  elevated,  we  should  probably  be  in  error 
to  ascribe  them  as  the  cause  of  the  reforms  we 


SATISFACTION  THE  GOAL        199 

have  noted.  Ethical  formulations  constitute 
euphonious  terms  in  which  to  describe  our 
actions.  To  be  really  truthful  we  should  say 
that  these  practices  have  been  accepted  be- 
cause they  have  paid  economically.  Sellers 
have  discovered  that  it  pays  to  give  first  con- 
sideration to  the  welfare  of  the  buyer.  That 
they  have  made  this  discovery  only  lately  is 
due  to  the  fact  that  they  have  just  begun  to 
learn  how  to  use  the  methods  of  science  in 
measuring  the  success  of  their  various  tactics. 
The  ethical  uplifter  might  take  a  hint  from 
this  and  conclude  that  if  he  wishes  to  see  high 
ethical  ideals  advance  in  business  he  should 
teach  the  seller  how  to  use  scientific  methods 
in  measuring  the  results  of  "good"  and  "bad" 
selling  methods. 

If  these  practices  can  be  justified  ethically 
and  economically  they  can  probably  be  justi- 
fied psychologically.  And  it  is  this  justifica- 
tion that  we  have  tried  to  furnish  throughout 
this  book.  If  our  message  is  rightly  under- 
stood the  reader  will  lay  down  the  book  with 
the  conviction  that  the  satisfaction  of  the 
buyer  is  the  keystone  that  supports  the  arch 
of  the  sale.  Though  a  seller  may  study  psy- 
chology assiduously;  learn  all  the  laws  of 
memory,  reasoning,  suggestion;  apply  all  the 


200      THE  MIND  OF  THE  BUYER 

formulas  for  arousing  interest,  desire  and  con- 
fidence; and  fail  to  keep  as  his  goal  the  wel- 
fare of  the  buyer,  his  words  will  be  as  sound- 
ing brass  and  tinkling  cymbal.  And  though 
he  may  go  far  toward  success  by  applying  the 
subtleties  of  psychological  lore,  he  will  go  still 
farther  if  he  places  one  rule  before  all  others 
— the  old-fashioned  unselfish  doctrine  embod- 
ied in  the  Golden  Rule. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 


BOOKS  FOR  FURTHER  READING 

CHAPTER    I 

ADAMS,  HENRY  F. :  Advertising  and  Its  Mental 
Laws.  New  York,  The  Macmillan  Co.,  1916. 
Chaps.  Mil;  VI-VII;  XVI. 

KITSON,  HARRY  D.:  Manual  for  the  Study  of  Ad- 
vertising and  Selling.  Philadelphia,  J.  B.  Lip- 
pincott  Co.,  1920. 

PILLSBURY,  W.  B.:  Essentials  of  Psychology.  New 
York,  The  Macmillan  Co.,  1920,  Rev.  Ed. 
Chap.  I. 

SHRYER,  WILLIAM  A.:  Analytical  Advertising.  De- 
troit, Business  Service  Corporation,  1912. 

CHAPTER   II 

LUCKIESH,    M. :     Language    of    Color.      New    York, 

Dodd,  Mead  &  Co.,  1918. 
PILLSBURY,  W.   B.:     Essentials   of  Psychology,  pp. 

94-101;  Chap.  V. 

CHAPTER   III 

PILLSBURY,  W.  B.:  Essentials  of  Psychology,  Chap- 
ters VI,  VIII. 

203 


204  BIBLIOGRAPHY 

CHAPTER   IV 

FEHLMAN,  FRANK:  Advertising  and  Selling,  Decem- 
ber, 1916. 

McDouoALL,  WILLIAM:  The  Group  Mind.  New 
York,  G.  P.  Putnam's  Co.,  1920. 

Ross,  EDWARD  A.:  Social  Psychology.  New  York, 
The  Macmillan  Co.,  1908.  Chaps.  IV,  VI. 

VEBLEN,  THORSTEIN:  The  Theory  of  the  Leisure 
Class.  New  York,  B.  W.  Huebsch.  Chaps.  IV, 
VII. 

CHAPTER    V 

BALDWIN,  JAMES  M.:  Handbook  of  Psychology. 
Two  volumes.  New  York,  Henry  Holt  &  Co., 
1890,  1894.  Vol.  II,  pp.  139-147. 

KITSON,  HARRY  D.:  How  to  Make  an  Advertise- 
ment Interesting.  Western  Advertising,  Janu- 
ary, 1921. 

CHAPTER   VI 

PILLSBURY,     W.     B. :     Essentials     of     Psychology. 

Chaps.  XI,  XII. 
WATSON,  JOHN  B. :     Psychology  from  the  Standpoint 

of  a  Behaviorist.     Philadelphia,  J.  B.  Lippin- 

cott  Co.,  1919.    Pp.  174-193. 

CHAPTER   VII 

KLINE,  LINUS  W.:  The  Psychology  of  Humor. 
Amer.  J.  of  Psychol.,  Vol.  XVIII,  1907,  pp. 
421-441. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  205 

PILLSBURY,  W.   B.:     Essentials   of  Psychology,  pp. 

236-240. 
SCOTT,  WALTER   D.:     The   Theory   of   Advertising. 

Boston,  Small,  Maynard  &  Co.,  1916.     Chaps. 

XIII,  XIV. 

CHAPTER   VIII 

BALDWIN,  J.  M.:     Handbook  of  Psychology.     Vol. 
II,  pp.  320-331. 


CHAPTER   IX 

BALDWIN,  J.  M.:     Handbook  of  Psychology.     Vol. 

II,  pp.  148-160. 
DAY,      CLARENCE      MUNRO:     Accounting     Practise. 

New  York,  D.  Appleton  &  Co.,  1908,  esp.  p.  81. 

CHAPTER  X 

DEWEY,   JOHN:     How  We   Think.     Boston,   D.   C. 

Heath  &  Co.,  1910,  pp.  68-78. 
PILLSBURY,  W.  B.:     Essentials  of  Psychology.    Chap. 

IX. 
SCOTT,  WALTER  D.:     Influencing  Men  in  Business. 

New  York,  The  Ronald  Press  Co.,  1911.    Chaps. 

II,  IV,  VI. 

CHAPTER   XI 

DARWIN,  CHARLES:  Expression  of  the  Emotions  in 
Man  and  Animal.  New  York,  D.  Aj>pleton  & 
Co.,  1873. 


206  BIBLIOGRAPHY 

McDouoALL,  WILLIAM:     An  Introduction  to  Social 

Psychology.      London,    Methuen   &    Co.,    1908, 

pp.  19,  20,  31,  32,  44-67,  87-102. 
PILLSBURY,  W.  B. :     Essentials  of  Psychology.    Chap. 

X. 
WATSON,  JOHN  B.:     Psychology  from  a  Behavior- 

ist's  Standpoint,  Chap.  IV. 

CHAPTER   XII 

SCOTT,  WALTER  D.:     Influencing  Men  in  Business. 

Chaps.  Ill,  V,  VI,  VIII. 
SIDIS,  BORIS:     The  Psychology  of  Suggestion.     New 

York,  D.  Appleton  &  Co.,  1898,  pp.  5-55. 

CHAPTER   XIII 

JAMES,  WILLIAM  :     Psychology,  Briefer  Course.    New 

York,  Henry  Holt  &  Co.,  1893.     Chap.  XXVI. 
KITSON,    HARRY    D.:     The    Psychological    Moment, 

Scientific  Monthly,  Vol.  IX,  September,  1919,  pp. 

246-252. 
McDouoALL,    WILLIAM:     Psychological    Psychology. 

London,  J.  M.  Dent  &  Sons,  Ltd.,  1905.     Chap. 

IX. 
PILLSBURY,  W.  B.:    Essentials  of  Psychology,  pp. 

338-357. 


INDEX 


\ 


INDEX 


Advertisements,  adapted  to 
medium,  55  ff ;  truthful- 
ness in,  191. 

^Esthetic,  see  esthetic. 

Amoeba,  91. 

Arguments,  in  reasoning, 
134. 

Associated  Advertising 
Clubs  of  the  World,  194. 

Association,   law   of,   98. 

Attention,  attracting,  30  ff; 
nature  of,  29. 

Auditory   images,  99. 

Automobile,  selling,  173,  180, 
197;  tire,  132  ff. 

Auto-suggestion,  167  f. 

Bain,   120. 

Baldwin,   123. 

Bank  advertising,  125  f ;  and 
confidence,  125. 

Better  Business  Bureaus, 
195. 

Brain,  energy,  176;  path- 
ways, 45. 

Cartoons,  in  advertising,  95. 

Change,  35. 

Classification,  of  instinctive 
acts,  147  f. 

Coleridge,  50. 

Color,   41  ff, 

Collective  buyer,  54. 

Commodity,  defined  as  serv- 
ice, 196  f. 


Competition,   188. 

Confidence,  117  ff;  develop- 
ment of,  119;  how  to  in- 
still, 126. 

Copy,  adapt  to  medium,  66. 

Counter-suggestion,  166. 

Coupons,  87. 

Credulity,   120. 

Cycle,  in^  fashion,  71;  in 
sale,  196. 

Darwin,  144. 

Desire,  96,   109  ff. 

Difficulty,  recognition  of, 
132. 

Digestion,   in   feeling,   93. 

Direct  suggestion,   163  f. 

Dishonesty  in  suggestion, 
165  f. 

Display  advertising,  justi- 
fied, 45  f;  52. 

Doubt,   121  f. 

Dynamogenesis,  see  Ideo- 
motor  action. 

Economic  investigation  of 
buying  public,  58;  point 
of  view,  8,  189,  198. 

Emotion,    145  f. 

Empathy,   103  ff. 

Esthetic,   95. 

Ethical  ideals,  187,  198  f; 
point  of  view,  7. 

Evangelist,  a  salesman,  133, 
150. 

Extensity,  32  ff. 


209 


210 


INDEX 


Fashion,  and  selling,  72; 
characteristics  of,  69  ff; 
defined,  68. 

Feeling,  "expressions"  of, 
90  ff;  good,  in  sale,  89  ff; 
in  instinctive  action,  145, 
150;  unpleasant,  in  desire, 
112  f;  with  images,  102  f. 

Fehlman,  Frank,  66  f. 

Ford,   Henry,    197. 

Forgetting,  curve  of,  47  f. 

Geographical  study  of  buy- 
ing public,  57. 
Golden  Rule,  200. 
Good-will,    118  f. 
Group-mind,  see   Public. 

Historical  method,   11  ff. 
Hospital,  86. 
Humor,  93. 

Idea,  156;  in  suggestion, 
163;  in  volition,  171  ff. 

Ideals,  186. 

Ideo-motor  action,  154  f. 

Image,  and  feeling,  110; 
clearness  of,  100;  in  De- 
sire, 110;  nature  of,  97, 
99,  100. 

Imitation,    70. 

Impression,  in  belief,  120; 
185. 

Inheritance,  31  f;  in  in- 
stinctive action,  143. 

Instinctive  action,  91,  96; 
and  feeling,  150;  charac- 
teristics of,  140  f ;  classi- 
fication of,  147  f;  defined, 
139. 

Intensity,  31. 

Interest,  classification  of, 
80,  83,  96;  defined,  77  f; 
how  to  arouse,  77  f;  how 
to  measure,  63;  laws  of, 
79  f. 


Involuntary  movements,  at 
psychological  moment,  179; 
in  feeling,  90. 

James,  82. 
Judd,  11. 

Kaleidoscope,  cross-section 
of  mind  like,  39. 

Laboratory  method,  17. 
Laws,   of   competition,   188; 
of  suggestion,  157  ff. 

Magazines,  55,  62,  64,  67. 

Magnitude,  see  Extensity. 

Mediums,  17,  Chap.  IV; 
choice  of,  57  f ;  distinc- 
tions between,  55  ff. 

Memory,  influenced  by  repe- 
tition, 46 ;  "unconscious," 
49  ff. 

Motion  picture,  actor,  79; 
in  selling,  40. 

Movement,  35  ff;  in  desire, 
111  f ;  in  suggestion,  154; 
simulated,  40. 

Napoleon,  170. 

Negative    suggestion,    159  f. 

Newspapers,  55,  59  f. 

Pleasant  feeling,  91  f. 

Positive  suggestion,   159. 

Price,  189. 

Primitive  credulity,  see 
Credulity. 

Psychological,  differences 
between  publics,  58  f; 
moment,  169,  177;  how  to 
meet,  179  ff;  point  of 
view,  9. 

Psychology,  experiment  in, 
12  ff;  old  and  new  con- 
ceptions of,  9ff;  "rule  of 
thumb"  vs.  scientific,  23  f. 

Public,    defined,    54. 


INDEX 


211 


Reality,  feeling  of,  120. 

Reason,  131  f ;  dangers  in, 
136;  secondary  rdle  of, 
137. 

Recognition,  of  difficulty  in 
reasoning,  132;  of  psycho- 
logical moment,  178  f. 

Repetition,  44;  distribution 
of,  46,  49,  95;  in  inspir- 
ing confidence,  126. 

Retention,  49. 

"Rule  of  thumb"  psychology, 
characteristics  of,  23  ff. 


Sale,  defined,  3. 

Salesman,  and  auto-sugges- 
tion, 167  f;  selection  of, 
20. 

Satisfaction,  96;  a  feeling, 
114;  in  confidence,  127; 
the  goal  of  selling,  185. 

Scientific  method,  12  ff. 

Sentences,  length  of,  in  me- 
diums, 61  f. 

Sensation-coefficient,  123. 

Selling,  forms  of,  3.  . 

Shakespeare,   170. 

Shryer,  16. 

Sitaris,   140. 

Slogan,  45,  52,  160,  19T. 


Sociological  investigation  of 
buying  public,  58. 

Specific  words,  101  f. 

Statistical  investigation  of 
returns,  16. 

Statistics,  23. 

Stream,  mental,  4;  at  stage 
of  attention,  29;  in  de- 
sire, 113  f;  in  suggestion, 
154,  186;  stages  in,  5. 

Suggestion,  abnormal,  152; 
defined,  152;  laws  of, 
157  ff. 

Superlative,  191. 

Syllables,  se*  Words. 

Trade-marks,  165  f. 

Truthfulness,  in  advertising 
191. 

Type,  investigation  of  lower- 
case, 17  ff. 

"Unconscious,"  action,  155; 
memorizing,  49  ff. 

Value,  187. 

Visual  images,  99  f. 

Vocabulary,  102. 

Words,  length  of,  in  adver- 
tising mediums,  60. 


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